"surrealism" in the media

Comrade streetfighter sent me this news item about two Ghazzawis celebrating the health of Mubarak with a comment "Surrealism."

the lebanese reactionary capitalist party & walid jumblatt

Bahaa' Abu Karroum, member of the Walid Jumblatt tribal following, the Lebanese "Socialist Progessive Party," wrote in Alakhbar newspaper on 26th of March, 2010 that his following simply follows the traditions of the family, the sect, the religion. I write back analyzing his chauvinistic, sectarian language in my article "the Lebanese Reactionary Capitalist Party."

UC, Berkeley student senate president hearts zionism

The past week was a busy one for BDS activists. The university of Michigan, Dearborn successfully boycotted and divested from companies that support apartheid Israel (tell that to this professor at georgetown who enjoys spreading his legs at Starbucks and who thinks BDS is useless). UC, Berkeley was next on track, but the president of the UC student senate vetoed the bill demanding BDS. We at PSCABI wrote back:
"The question you must answer is: Can one negotiate with racism? Can apartheid be negotiable? In your letter justifying the veto, it was apparent that you believe there are two equal sides in this “conflict!” How can the fourth strongest army in the world—that has at its disposal F16s, F15s, F35s, Apache helicopters, Mirkava tanks, and white phosphorous—how can such an army compare to what one political scientist at UC Berkeley called the “fire crackers” of the resistance in Gaza? Can one equate the predator to its prey?
You decision to veto the Senate Bill 118a is a slap in the face of democracy and an indication of a conscious choice to stand on the wrong side of history"

open letter to pokemon

Comrades in Gaza send an open letter to Ban-Ki-Moon. Note that this incompetent puppet went to Gaza after Israel's 22-day genocidal war, and he only visited the UNRWA headquarters. He didn't bother to visit the tents where people were grouped in Khan Younes, Jabalya, and Beit Hanoun.

the hungry citizen

Lebanese blogger Khodor Salameh was harrassed by the racist Lebanese army for the contents of his blog, the hungry citizen (muwaten ju'aan). Ghazzawiyya expresses her satrean nausea towards these bullies and calls all progressive, democratic, and leftist activists to lend their support to comrade Salameh.

تكتلوا يا رفاق!

No Dogs &... Israelis please!

This was posted in a Jordanian bookshop (thanks streetfighter)

The meaning of Normalization with the Zionist entity

Moh'd Ali el Khalidi, a university professor at York, Canada, writes about the meaning of Normalization with apartheid Israel, in a response to the neo-liberal Hazim Saghiyyeh who seems to be ignorant on matters of BDS(and who shares his views on BDS with this chauvinist at Georgetown who loves spreading his legs at Starbucks with a cup of cappucino to complement it as his people are under siege in Gaza). Khalidi writes (in Arabic) and I translate this paragraph:
"Normalization means that the struggle has ended. It means that we have accepted the continuous oppression of the Palestinian people and their indiscriminate killing. It means that we have, despite that, developed normal relations to the state that oppresses and kills them on a daily basis. Resisting normalization is one of the few ways in which Arabs can express their rejectionism towards the decisions made by their leaders whose pictures are taken every once in a while revealing them embracing Israeli officials."

BDS.. yet another Victoire!

This professor at Georgetown university, who thinks BDS is... stupid and "won't achieve a thing," and who shamefully, shamelessly visits Starbucks while his people are under siege, should be sent this:
"For the first time in the University of California history, the UC Berkeley Student Senate has approved a bill to divest from two US companies in response to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and to Israel’s siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip. " This is for you Hanaa, this is for you Salma, this is for you Hanan, this is for you Moh'd, this is for you Abu Jabr, this for you Haidar, this is for you... Gaza, this is for you Jerusalem, this is for you Qana.

Boycotting Swedish Fashion Giant H&M

"The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) calls for international protests leading to a boycott of Swedish fashion giant H&M, particularly in the Arab World, in response to its opening of its second store in Israel, this time in the "Malha Mall" in Jerusalem, at a time when Israel is intensifying its illegal colonization of the occupied eastern part of the city. Malha is one of the Palestinian villages that were ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba and whose original Palestinian inhabitants are refugees denied their UN-sanctioned right to return to their lands."

"How can I strike them with my two hands only?"

"My cries and my sobs tear the heavens open
My sons buried along with my brethren
My cries and my sobs tear the earth open
...
How can I strike them with my two hands only?
Is my nere body enough to resist?
There's nothing left for me to move on
Under the tanks is crashed whatever I love"
A very moving song about... Filasteen. (thank you... G.K.)

Joseph Mas'aad's LSE lecture

Joseph Mas'aad's lecture yesterday at LSE was brilliant. It is very relevant to what is happening now in Jerusalem. He spoke about Jaques Derrida and his racist politics and gave a good critique of those politics ("I find Derrida's philosophical work.... interesting, not his politics. He's just not my cup of tea"). Jaques Derrida was a two stater, and the fact that he supported a state for the Jews as opposed to a state for ALL of its citizens no matter what religion or ethnic background is racist. Mas'aad dealt with semitism, and anti-semitism and their meanings in different historical contexts. What he said about the question of Palestine was very important... in that the question of Palestine, is the question of Jews. And let's remember that before Edward Said died, he said that he was the last Jewish intellectual. I downloaded part one and part two of the lecture on yousendit and it's only valid for seven days.

the Druze feudal warlord of Lebanon

From grandfather to father to son, to son of the father of the son of the grandfather's son's son of the son of the son of the... when kamal jumblatt died, the feudal chauvinistic warlords took over

Our heroes...

Since the morning after celebrations of the Hurva synagogue opening (which as a result the movement in the city was crippled, shops closed and a waver imposed for four days), Palestinian youth have been demonstrating in Jerusalem. Silence everywhere else. No other demonstrations have been organized around the Arab world. Again, the Palestinians are on their own. These are our heroes...

British Culture is disappearing... as the Muslims invade Europe

Companera Sadie Robinson writes about discrimination against migrants in Britain "A UK Independence Party document launched this year pronounced, “Britishness can be defined in terms of belief in democracy, fair play and freedom, as well as traits such as politeness.” Tell that to the former colonies, the workers who have died struggling for the vote and for basic rights, or the people of Iraq and Afghanistan... Culture is not something fixed and timeless. It is always changing because of wider changes in society. In Britain it was once common for some pubs not to serve women. It isn’t today, because women’s role in society has been transformed in the past few decades."

The Hurva Synagogue

I don't understand why Aljazeera did not host activists on the ground concerning the building of the Hurva synagogue on the program ma wara' el khabar (What lies behind the News item). I did not like the guests they came as too weak. At one point the hostess answered for one of the guests as she was asking her question! All the guests spoke rhetoric, and one even praised Yaser Arafat, at this point I muted the volume and uttered obscenities in Arabic at the screen. What happened to activists on the ground who were against the building of this synagogue in a Jewish only settlement built over demolished Palestinians' homes? They all agreed on one thing, there is Arab silence about this, which is a cause for shame, albeit the word shame was not uttered, but implied. This is a perfect case of the myth of the creation of the state of Israel: the appropriation of the history of the land and the history of the people on it. Here's a translation of what is written ont he site of Al Jazeera "The reasons behind the building of the Hurva synagogue is, according to speacialists who have been following the case of Jerusalem and its holy sites, is the creation of an illusory Jewish history that fit in accordance with the official Israeli policy with regards to the city of Jerusalem. The Israeli archeologist Maer Bin David denied the site being an archeological one as opposed to the official Israeli narrative."

I caught Walid Jumblatt

Lebanese feudal war lord Walid Jumblatt was on Hiwar Maftouh with the talented Ghassan Bin Jido. I didn't get to watch it on Aljazeera from the beginning but caught Ghassan asking Jumblatt about Gaza at the end of the interview, and Jumblatt (looking constipated) said the siege on Gaza was terrible, those poor Palestinians, and he asked Ghassan not to make him deal with the causes of the siege, and he ended wishing for Arab unity. Walid Jumblatt will tomorrow give political science courses in Mukhtara University about the siege on Gaza and the Palestinian cause, and come up with his brilliant and innovative maps demonstrating to the feudal sheikhs of mukhtara his political and philosophical understandings and wisdom, and the feudal sheikhs of mukhtara will swoon and sigh over him in return.

Comrade Haidar convening

Comrade Haidar Eid convening the Israeli Apartheid week in Gaza

I'm not the only one dissapointed with Mr Finkelstein

I was really disspointed with many Leftist intellectuals in Lebanon defending Mr Finkelstein's position when it came to the Satyagraha approach to the Palestine issue, him ignoring BDS, and not even taking into account Palestinian civil resistance since 1936. It seems I am not the only one dissapointed. I do have a problem with the way this article refers to the Holocaust though, and, as a friend wrote, the writer neglects Mr Finkelstein's feelings about BDS. A blogger summarizes our problem with Mr Finkelstein:
"He does not question Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. He does not endorse the right of return for all Palestinians, or financial compensation for them. He does not call for full and equal rights of Israeli Arabs. " (of course with his total discrediting of and undermining of BDS, and Palestinian civil resistance is too trivial for Mr Finkelstein to mention)

Saree Makdisi writes about One State

Makdissi writes an about Apartheid Israel after his last visit to South Africa.
"in view of the system of apartheid in place in Israel and the occupied territories—a system of apartheid that is inseparable from the project to create and maintain the pretense of a Jewish state in what is fact a profoundly heterogeneous land—there can be no peaceful and just resolution of the Zionist conflict with the Palestinians until the attempt to replace one people with another, to impose a monocultural identity on a multicultural country, is abandoned and its institutions completely dismantled. Creating a Palestinian statelet in the West Bank alongside an Israel whose claim to Jewishness would be reinforced in a two-state solution would do little for West Bankers, less for Gazans, nothing for the refugees and their descendants, and less than nothing for the Palestinian citizens of Israel, whose status as reviled non-Jews would become even worse. Only the creation of a democratic and secular state in all of historic Palestine, in which Israeli Jews and Palestinians—all of them, the ones now under occupation, the ones living as second-class citizens of Israel, and the refugees of 1948 and their descendants, whose right of return is absolutely beyond question—can live as equal citizens can resolve this conflict once and for all. From these two conclusions a third follows as well. A just peace will not come about by merely pleading with or trying to persuade Israeli Jews to do the right thing and abandon and dismantle the racist system that endows them with privileges while denying fundamental Palestinian rights. All the closest historical precedents to this conflict—above all South Africa—remind us that privileged groups don’t abandon their privileges just because that’s the right thing to do or because they are made to feel bad about enjoying those privileges; they abandon them only when they have no other choice. This case is no different: a just peace fundamentally requires nonviolent outside pressure to be brought to bear on Israel; which is why for so many people of good will around the world, and for so many Palestinians themselves, the growing BDS (boycott / divestment / sanctions) movement is a source of such hope. "

American and Jewish Fascism

"Based on Biden's reaction, it seems that he (and, presumably, his boss) has decided that it is better to leave with a few sour grapes than to quarrel with the vineyard guard." "(vineyard guards...?)

Zionism... an invention of recent date and one nearing its end

"Israelis must recognize that if they are against a viable Palestinian state living side by side then there will be one state between the river and the sea and very soon there will be more Palestinian Arabs in it than Jews. What then will become of the Zionist dream? Will they prefer that alternative? As children and grandchildren of ghetto-living European Jewry they ought to know that a democracy reserved for privileged citizens while all others are denied individual and national rights and kept behind checkpoints, barbed wire fences and separation walls manned by Israel’s military, is not democracy."

BDS kick-them-in-the-butt

"There is a clarity in fighting against BDS that could provide traction in the Jewish world and beyond. In the current climate, Israel advocates are always going to lose a fight over “settlements” and “occupation,” or at best get mired in stalemate. BDS shifts the terrain, making the battle one over Israel’s right to exist, over the legitimacy of Zionism, over the anti-Semitic tropes shaping the anti-Israel movement, and the rank anti-Semitism behind the disproportionate, obsessive focus on Israel. " the Zionists are feeling threatened already, and what? The BDS call was endorsed in 2005, the BNC (BDS National Committee) was established in 2009 right after the Gaza massacre. Last January a committee was formed to fight BDS in the Knesset, headed by fascist Lieberman. I think they should invite Martin Kramer too. They would make a nice pair for kundara throwing.

The Arab Umma is in good hands

As long as we're singing about lahmeh (meat), the Arab umma (community) is in good hands, I assure you. But, where is the hoummus song? Ah, maybe Carla Sarkozy should take of that.

mohamad munir and mubarak state puppets

Mohamad Munir's audience gave Mubarak's puppets a hard time after one of his concerts. for those of you who do not know Munir, he is one of the few progressive voices out there, a school in the world of music, the contemporary arab king of reggea, jazz and hip hop. His songs have been written by poets from across the Arab world, like Egyptian poet Kawthar Mustafa in famous songs like 'aali sotak (raise your voice) in Yousef Chahine's Destiny & banaat (girls), and Sudanese poet Mahjoub Shareef's ana galbi masaken sha'abiyya (the people's voices are in my heart). He sang for Palestine at a time where the post-Sadat normalization, Islamization and Mubarak totalitarianism is dominant. He comes from a Nubian background, a marginalized community in Egypt (not the only ones). After Gaza 2009, Munir's concerts have been banned in Egypt with the state claiming the ban is because of the Swine Flue epidemic. During this concert in the Mustaqbal Academy, Mubarak security men clashes with the audience, throwing gas canisters, and the audience fights back.

British Nazism branch

"“They started chanting ‘We want our country back’. My parents are Muslims and they talked about them as if they are animals.”

the rich get richer, the poor grow poorer

"This resistance is part of a fightback across Europe. Workers are fighting the idea that we should face cuts and job losses while trillions are handed to the banks."

Fatenah...Never to forgive, never to forget

This is a remarkable animation film called Fatenah and it talks about a young woman who lives in the Shati' Refugee camp in Gaza (mukhayyam el-shati'). She works and is in love with a co-worker, only to wake up one day with the bump in her breast and the film follows her story as she tries to receive the proper medical care. As a friend once told me, "being born a Palestinian is a curse in itself." On youtube, there's Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
I tried hard not to cry, how many times can they break our hearts... When I watched the Zionist hoodlooms today (check the posts below), I mean just looking at them boiling up at the thought of BDS is a success. You tell me... what can be more powerful than BDS for the individual citizen? For a worker in Alaska, and for a grocery store owner in Amman? The story of Fatenah, the torture she went through has been gone through by at least every single family in Gaza. So, yes, Boycott, and Boycott hard. Boycott and think of Fatenah, think of the Sammouni children, the Abu Dayeh children and the Abu Eisha children.

Omar Barghouti debates a Zionist

Using the same arguments as the Reut member (check previous posts) Waskow here is debated by the competent Omar Barghouti. While Waskow was speaking about peace, images of white phosphorous appeared on the screen. No peace mr Waskow without justice... no peace before Sammouni, Abu Eisha and Abu Dayeh families blood is redeemed. Never to forgive never to forget.

Marching on in the West Bank

Al Akhbar had this on its front page. During a march in the West Bank, impersonating Mandela, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King (AFP Abbas Mawmani)

Comrades Haidar Eid and Hazem Jamjoum on IAW

(As I promised, I translated this interview. )
Comrades Haidar Eid and Hazem Jamjoum address the importance of the Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) on Al Aqsa radio station:
Haidar begins by speaking about the beginning of the boycott movement with PACBI and that it was created in 2004 to deal with the Zionist entity (and NOT only the occupation) with a statement that called on all academics around the world to boycott the state of Israel on the basis that it is a racist state and to deal with it in a manner similar to how the Apartheid regime in South Africa was dealt with. This PACBI statement was the precursor to the officially endorsed BDS call in 2005 which endorsed by more than 170 Palesitnian civil society organizations and calls upon the international community to punish Israel for its Apartheid policies against the indigenous 1948 population (1948 occupied lands), for the military occupation and colonization of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank (1967 occupied lands), and for its refusal to comply with UN resolution 194 that states the right of return to all Palestinian refugees forcefully removed in 1948, their compensation for the years of dispossession and strandedness.
Haidar speaks about how the IAW began and he says that it was actually a group students from Toronto University in Canada that initiated the IAW as a response to the BDS call which is a cultural, academic, military, diplomatic, economic and sports boycott similar to the boycott against Apartheid South Africa in the 1970s and 80s, and which was a vital element in the liberation of South Africa. This, he says, asks for government pressure as well to boycott, just like what we are aiming at now with the Norwegian government. The BDS echo was intensified particularly after Gaza 2009 (genocidal war against Palestinian from 27th Dec 2008 till 18 January 2009). "After Gaza 2009, the BDS was endorsed by British trade unions, which combines more than 6.8 million workers, by the Irish trade union, and some Canadian trade unions. There was also the campus occupations where more than 34 campuses in the UK were occupied as a statement against the genocide." He said that this was a massive urge to boycott, and what happened in the Israeli Knesset as a response to these actions was the herzliya conference that took place last month where research papers were submitted about the topic of boycott (in particular from the Reut research institute- check Al Jazeera video below, where one of the guests is a member of Reut). These papers that were issued by Reut about the conference, says Haidar, were actually speaking about the massively growing BDS endorsements in more than 40 countries; from Canada to South Africa, to some Asian countries, even Britain now such that a document was issued by the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs questioning the development of BDS support in the UK.
He said: "What we have to do as BDS is to raise awareness about the nature of the direct military occupation in the WB and GS, and at the same about the Apartheid in the 1948 lands. We also have to note that the policies of the state of Israel and what it is doing on the ground far supersedes Apartheid of South Africa in that it is not only Apartheid, but military occupation and ethnic cleansing."
Haidar discussed the IAW events in Gaza and the video conference that were linked with universities such as the university of Barcelona, as well playing the Palestinian animation film Fatenah. Hazem was invited to participate through the phone from Bethlehem, but the connection was lousy. He spoke about the events there, beginning with music nights "playing the songs of the revolutionary Egyptian singer Sheikh Imam" as well as the lectures on the meaning of Apartheid, the refugees, the 1948 Palestinians, and the affect on the GS. Hazem mentioned that there will be demonstrations against the Apartheid wall in a village called Al Maa'sarah that is threatened by the building of the Apartheid wall and another demonstration on Saturday(today) in Bethlehem.
He spoke about what it means to boycott from within, and difficulties in that.
Haidar cut in and spoke about how it is necessary we learn from the boycott against Apartheid in South Africa. "What we are demanding is that countries that are members of the United Nations council boycott Israel until the latter complies with international laws and UN resolutions and implements them. So, the boycott movement wouldn't actually rely on political resolutions, but on international legitimacy, and I believe that the ordinary citizen can understand this talk if it was explained to her that there is a moral obligation to every citizen, around the world, and particularly even to civil societies to pressure their governments to boycott." Haidar mentioned that this what happened during Reagen's and Thatcher's office. "The American government under Reagen refused to boycott the Apartheid in South Africa, and that it was because of the pressures by civil society that boycott actually got through and those governments boycotted that regime."
Haidar said that the boycott call against Apartheid in South Africa was actually launched by a small group of Black South Africans from the ANC in 1958. "In 1994 Nelson Mandela was released from prison after the magnanimous pressures imposed by countries on the Apartheid regime. And we know that the first BDS call in the Palestinian case was in 2005, and look where we are now." He continued "when anti-Apartheid figures from South African such as Desmund Tutu and Ronnie Kasrils visited the WB and GS, they told us that what we as a BDS call have been able to achieve during these few years is more than what BDS achieved against the Apartheid regime of South Africa in 30 years. And I believe we are getting to isolate Israel through this method."
Hazem then spoke about how international law was very clear about the issue of the right to return, the equality of citizens of the 1948 lands in duties and rights , the violation of human rights that occur in the WB and GS by Israel. "We have also reached a time whereby the Zionist propaganda machine is incapable of hiding the crimes the state of Israel commits particularly after the massacres in Gaza of last year and so it is not working out of Israel now to call every person that stands against her an anti-Semite."
Haidar differentiated between the policies of states that are allies of Israel, and the civil societies under them and can exercise pressures on their governments, just like what happened in the US against the Reagen government. "What we can rely on is the pressures exerted by the masses (sorry Haidar, I don't have faith in the masses), by the people, and not on their governments."
He continues "there no longer are taboos when it comes to boycotting Israel in Europe and I believe that we have contributed to making this happen, the understanding of BDS. In the US, for example, Hampshire college has endorsed BDS and the University of Arizona is heading that way too. Talk about boycott before Gaza and before 2005 was a taboo." He spoke about the four pillars of struggle, and particularly mass mobilization and BDS as what concerns civil society.
Hazem spoke about Apartheid policies, some of what we rarely hear about if ever, particularly in the Negev area where 30 % of refugees in Gaza come from. This area, which is unrecognized, Hazem said, has no electricity, no clinics, no schools, and home demolitions accompany each passing week. "All towns that the occupation calls "mixed areas" such as Lid, Jaffa, Haifa, Ramleh, and Acre witness weekly home demolitions and people are kicked out of their homes. Not to mention the racism embedded in all life aspects here in Israel. In education, for example, the Israelis erase the identity category "Palestinian". The Palestinian student has an average of 700-800 shekels a year while the Israeli student has more than 3000 shekels a year secured for him in education. We see this racism everywhere in the 1948 lands."
Haidar mentioned that the importance of the participation of 1948 Palestinians in such events as IAW reveals the fabrication of the myth that Israel in a democracy and "this also challenges the idea that the Palestinian struggle reduces itself to only the 1967 lands." Haidar stressed that the Palestinian people are not only those that live in the WB and the GS: "as if by solving the problems of the inhabitants of the GS and WB you have resolved the Palestine issue. The Palestinian issue did NOT begin in 1967 it began in 1948 and therefore during the IAW week our efforts are representative of all the Palestinian people and that the state of Israel since 1948 is an Apartheid state and not only a military occupation of the GS and WB and one of the most important aims of the IAW is the implementation of the UN resolution 192 that calls for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees."
Haidar continues saying "I have lived in South Africa for seven years and over there I participated in studies revealing the similarities between the South Africa Apartheid and the Israeli one and the result that we got to was that the Israeli Apartheid has transcended its South Africa precedent on many levels and is much much worse. For instance, it has never happened that the Apartheid of South Africa ever used weapons such as F16s, Apache helicopters and white phosphorous to enter a Bantustan." Haidar mentioned the existential threat that BDS imposes on Israel. Israel has arrested civil society leaders, such as Jamal Jum'aa and others , and has invaded Mazen Qumsiyyeh's house and demanded he submit himself on his return from the US (check blog entry about Mazin below) for such reasons for instance.
"These initiatives will replace negotiations that have dwelled more than 16 years. I believe that what we are passing by abroad and here, will eventually lead to the isolation of the Apartheid state, and that it is necessary to think of creative solutions other than the myth of a two-state prison because at the end of the day the two-state solution is racist solution because it depends on separation based on ethno-religious identities, but what we are doing here is to humanize the Palestinian after she has been dehumanized by the occupier.
Salutations to all comrades on an incredible week
و يعطيكم الف عافية مع الامل انه ماحدش منكم اصابه اي عصر هضم!

Edward Said and the Idea of Palestine in the US

Great article about Edward Said in Al Quds al Arabi (Arabic).

comrades in COSATU

"we stand firmly opposed to apartheid, colonialism, occupation and injustice of whatever form. We call for the world to intensify the prosecution of all who commit war crimes against humanity and ensure redress for victims of such savagery."

in a word... it is Boycott

When I was in the Yew Ass Aiyy, this professor** at georgetown told me he believes boycott is stupid and that it will lead nowhere because he flighs Boeing jet planes and therefore one cup of coffee from starbucks will not affect the cause (and one of his students was drinking a starbucks coffee shamelessly). I throw this video in that professor's face (his students promised they won't be going to starbucks). They were actually sitting in starbucks and I refused to get in.
Notice how lame and empty the Zionist argument has become (not to mention redundant and boring: boycott is anti-semitic, the arabs want to erase jews from existence, the refugee problem is the arab government's fault). Again, occupation is NOT only why we should boycott: we are boycotting Apartheid, occupation, and a colonialist, supremecist ideology and regime. And notice how everything that Zionist says is based on ethnic identity and not citizenship (as Eyal says). I don't think that Imran should have asked the Zionist "is BDS anti-semitic?" but, rather, "(why) do you think BDS is anti-semitic?" The first is neutral, the second is objective. I think Imran was very witty in handling the discussion. Hazem kicked butt, but I didn't like the reference in the end. I think that anyone who supports the Palestinian moral and just cause, and ignores BDS is being hypocritical because the BDS call as endorsed by the BNC (BDS National Committee) represents the majority (if not ALL) of Palestinian civil society organizations, in Gaza, in the WB, in the 1948 occupied lands and the diaspora, and so it is representative of the Palestinian people as comrade Hazem said. It is what they want, it is the Palestinians that choose their resistance, and you stand with them in that battle and learn from them.

** actually, i can't believe that while his people, our families and friends, in Gaza are under the most brutal siege, he could actually sit in starbucks and buy a coffee. it is unacceptable.

Occupied Golan Apples

Apple imports into Syria from the Israeli occupied Golan heights.

Mazin Qumsiyyeh's home invaded

Mazen Qumsiyyeh's home was invaded by Israeli soldiers. "The Israeli army invaded our neighborhood at 1:30 AM Tuesday morning wakingup my mother, wife and sister. Heavily-armed soldiers blocked roads during"the operation". When my family opened the door, they demanded to see me. They were told I have already left to the US. After many more questions, theyleft a paper that states I am to appear at the military liaison office next Monday. My sister and wife told them I will not be back by then. ... I guess I am a wanted man nowfor engaging in nonviolent protest!... What disturbs me is not the risk to me; any action against oppression is taken knowing there are personal risks. What disturbs me is that this has an effect on my family and thousands of friends around the world who care (and some of it unpredictable). My 76 year old mother asks on the phone that I not go back and that I work in the US for awhile, a very painful suggestion for a mother to make about her only remaining son near her! I try to assure her that I have done nothing wrongand will not leave her…"

I am a fan

I am a big fan of Mr Zurayk. Follow his amazing blog. NOW.

As I walk the pathways of SOAS...

... I can't but think to myself that Bernard Louis was once walking on those same steps. I cringe, my heart sinks, and the inspiration to vomit ensues. I should write literature from now on that tone.

Interview on Al Aqsa radio station

For those of you who care, comrade Haidar Eid and Hazem Jamjoum (if you don't know Hazem familiarize yourself with him NOW) (PACBI) are being interviewed by Al Aqsa radio station in Gaza tomorrow Wednesday 3, at 20:00 Gaza time (18:00 GMT, 13:00 DC time). Of course the interview will be in Arabic and of course, I will translate summary points, or the whole talk (if you're lucky I'm in a good anti-british colonial selves mood) and can be heard live from the radio station's website.

Apartheid week in Gaza

Comrades in Gaza planned this excellent Apartheid week with these events.

Sartrean Nausea

I complained of constant nausea (in the Sartrean sense) when I was in Lebanon. Now, I know why. "Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon are not much better off than their counterparts living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank or under siege in Gaza. Their life is a sad chapter full of sorrow. They are denied basic civil and human rights and their movement is restricted. In fact, they are caged inside the twelve camps like animals with armed guards at the gate."

where Judith Butler went wrong

In the second part of her interview in Ha'aretz, Ms Butler went wrong: "We must keep in mind that the BDS movement has always been focused on the occupation" what about Apartheid against the natives of the land in the 1948 occupied lands? "It is not a referendum on Zionism, and it does not take an explicit position on the one-state or two-state solution. " Again, if it were one state or five states, is not the issue, but can she really mention the two (prison)-state solution? The one less than 22% of the historic land of Palestine? The one with the Apartheid wall and the ever expanding settlements? Can we even speak about a.. two-state Ms Butler? Oh, and it is very much an anti-Zionist (Zionism being a racist, neo-colonial movement based on hatred, isolationism, and exculsion of the other.. not to mention ethnic cleansing) call. What's with referendrum. I don't like it when celebrity intellectuals use words with obscure meanings to show that they understand what is in hand, when they don't.