"it's clear what the future looks like"

"The Senate needed 14 votes to overturn his veto,but early this morning, after an epic 10 plus hour meeting, senatorsfound they had only 13 yes votes with one abstention. So the studentstabled a vote to overturn the veto. This means the veto stands but can still be overturned later -- there will be much continued lobbyingand activism in the coming weeks. (Meanwhile, some weeks ago AIPACopenly threatened to take over the UC government to block the bill.)" اصل الخواجة ابن ماريكا
There is nothing I despise more than a chauvinistic, ego drenched male... الذكر

our hero

Mr Richard Millet and the likes of him will never understand that bravery, courage and conscience that heroine Hedy Epstein speaks with. Here she testifies at Berkley concerning the bill 118a. For those of you who asked, no the bill has been vetoed, but it is now being reconsidered with much pressure from the student body and board of advisors (such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Judith Butler to name a few).

on the last israeli military assault

Comrade Haidar Eid writes a wonderful analytical piece on the last israeli strike on Gaza a few weeks ago. (Arabic)

مين اللي ظالم فينا مين مظلوم؟

ما نرضاش يخاصم القمر السما
ما نرضاش تدوس البشر بعضها
ما نرضاش يموت جوه قلبي نداء
ما نرضاش تهاجر الجذور أرضها
ما نرضاش قلبي جوا يغني
وأجراس تدق لصرخة ميلاد
تموت حته مني
الأجراس بتعلن نهاية بشر
من العباد
دي الحكمة قتلتني
و حيتني
وخلتني أغوص في قلب السر
قلب الكون
قبل الطوفان ما ييجي
خلتني أخاف عليك يا مصر
واحكيلك على المكنون
مين العاقل فينا
مين المجنون؟؟
مين الي مدبوح من الألم
مين اللي ظالم فينا
مين مظلوم؟؟
مين اللي ما يعرفش غير كلمة نعم
مين اللي محميلك خضار؟؟
الفلاحين غلابة
مين اللي محميلك عمار؟؟
عمالك الطيابة
مين اللي ببيع الضمير
مين يشتري بيه الدمار
مين هو صاحب المسألة
والمشكلة ..
والحكاية ..
والقلم ؟؟
رأيت كل شيء
وتعبت على الحقيقة
قابلت في الطريق
عيون كتيرة بريئة
أعرف بشر ..
عرفوني لأ
لأ ما عرفونيش
قبلوني وقبلتهم
بمد ايدي لأطب ليه ما تقبلنيش
لا يهمني اسمك
لا يهمني عنوانك
لا يهمني لونك
ولا ولادك ومكانك
يهمني الإنسان
ولو ما لوش عنوان
يا ناس .. يا ناس يا مكبوته
هي دي الحدوته

حدوته مصرية- عبد الرحمن منصور

one year since bassem's martyrdom

Comrade Bassem Abu Rahmeh was killed one year ago, April 16, 2009 in the Bil'in demonstration against the Apartheid wall that occurs on a weekly basis. The video of an Israeli soldier aiming a gas canister at Bassem's heart can be seen here. Bassem was killed instantly. Perhaps Mr Richard Millet would lecture us about peace now? No peace without justice Mr Millet. Mind you, isn't it insulting to speak about peace when the blood of more than 400 children in Gaza hasn't dried yet? Never to forgive, never to forget.

لعيونك يا رفيق ... جاييلهم يوم

bill 118a

Palestinian students from the 1948 lands write to the berkley student senate: "The idea that Israeli universities and institutions adhere to the values of academic freedom, objectivity and meritocracy prevails widely in the West. However, we can attest from our experience – and, indeed, prove without a doubt – that this is not the case. We are systematically prevented from forming our autonomous student bodies, and racial discrimination is widely practiced against us when it comes to receiving scholarships and securing housing in the university residential halls – discrimination enacted under the pretext that we have not served in the Israeli army. The restrictions imposed on our freedom of expression are more stifling; our public gatherings are often violently interrupted by the police, called to intervene by the university administration."

The senate has also received emails from Naomi Klein, Archbishop Desmund Tutu and Judith Butler. Note that the bill was vetoed by the president of the student senate. Maybe Mr Richard Millet should write to them too, particularly about the houses.

the princes and kings of arab oil

I received this message from comrades in the International Movement to Open the Rafeh Crossing: "a number of People from Gaza, after weeks of struggling to get across Rafah Border and the heavy financial burden to leave with visas, passports etc. For pressing work in the UAE. Due to changes in policies in the UAE. / Palestinian citizens are now facing being in the UAE illegally and denied the right to work as they HOLD A PALESTINIAN passport. their only viable option is to try to find help with our Turkish brethren in the hope that their travels have not been in vain."

Zionism (and Orientalism) is racism

Mr Millet contacted me concerning my post below. He asked me to remove it... immediately.

richard millet, just another racist zionist

I am not certain I like how this programme was prepared on Press TV. First, who are the "audience in Ram-a-llaaaah?" We are not told who are these young men, who they represent, are they activists, students, both, or none? And why are there no women in the "audience"? And I did not like the fact that the members of "the audience" who spoke remained nameless. And look at this ignorant guest that was hosted, Richard Millet, who believes that the houses that the Israelis are building, part of the settlements, can later be accomodated by Palestinians! Oh, yeah. The Israelis kill Palestinians and then build them houses to live in. How nice. But, really now, Israelis even bomb the Palestinian tombs. He was literally a laughing stock: "building homes isn't necessarily religious, Jewish or Muslim or Arab or Palestinian. Building houses is necessary so people can-ummm oooo ummm- live in them" Mr Millet seems to be living with the Na'vi in Pandora. I couldn't stop laughing at this sentence, but you can see comrade Haidar flipping in his chair. "I don't see why when we sit on the negotiating tables-not we, the Palestinians and Israelis- that the inhabitants of these houses can be moved and Palestinians can live in them"- wow. I mean how easy is that, not that I am defending the settlers! But, look at how casually he can say it, as if people are some kind of sheep flock that you can simply move around. And does he honestly believe that settlers would just step aside for the Palestinians to live in the houses? That is racist. That is why in the one democratic state solution, we ask to keep the Israeli settlements and move in Palestinians (and that is even a concession! The settlers do NOT belong there, it is not there land). Why should it only be one ethnic or religious identity gets to occuppy a space? Why should a space be purified into one ehthnic, religious, gender, or racial identity? This is the cornerstone of colonial, superior thought. There are many studies about the Judization of Jerusalem, such as Eyal Weizman's Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Domination and there is also a book called The Politics of Sacred Spaces by Michael Dumper and both speak about how spaces are used in a wider political and economic context. But, I am opposed to how Dumper constantly speaks about two "nations" in Jerusalem. Again, Judaism is not a nationalism, Israel makes it one. Israel, through architecture, is changing modern day Jerusalem and Judizing it: when it destroyed the Maghareb quarter of the old city, or the appropriation of the churches through confiscation, lease and purchase. Even when we listened to Netanyahu speaking at the beginning of the programme that the "Jews were building Jerusalem 3000 years ago and now building it again." That is racist, exclusive, and ethnocentric. I am an atheist, but look at how god is used as a real estate agent. This discourse of using God to "our" side, is not so different from the Talibani or the Bin Ladenite discourse. I think the presenter, or the preparation team didn't do a good job researching this, but comrade Haidar handled it well. And look at how Millet keeps on referring to Hamas in each and every sentence he fabricates. At the end of the programme one of the young men looking fed up with the constant reference to Hamas asked him "what about before Hamas, what about 1967, the 70s the 80s?" I liked it when one of young men told Millet to go read Edward Said's work. Just when a Zionist runs out of crappy arguments, s/he starts to beg for attention by referring to Hamas, and the "subjugation of women" and look at these poor Palestinians suffering under those extremists and so on. It's getting so lame. And one more thing, homosexuals are harrassed in the Arab/Israeli world? If there is one safe haven for same sex desire to happen, it is in the Arab or Islamic world and I don't need to explain why!

israeli national basketball team takes a dribble shock in spain

Activists in Spain interrupt a basketball match that the Israeli national team participates in. Here's the video. (Shurkan Streetfighter)

putin: the man "who likes to solve his problems with invasions and air assaults"

"Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin is blaming the attacks on the largely Muslim region’s Islamists.
Putin says they need to be “destroyed”."

mr. brown decides to lecture us

"According to this, competition between universities ought to stimulate “innovation”, reduce “waste” and remove unnecessary “rigidities” caused by the traditional “corporatism” of academics." I think Sanyoura is now taking notes on this one.

western democracy at its best

"Special forces soldiers pulled their bullets out of victims’ bodies and washed the wounds with alcohol, after shooting the three women and two men during a night raid."

Margaret Atwood: Don’t Stand on the Wrong Side of History

Margaret Attwood is invited to receive a prize at the Tel Aviv University symposium. We, in PSCABI, write to her to urge her not to attend.

Normalization with the Zionist entity

Zahira Kamal, previous Minister of "women's affairs" in the PA, speaks about non-violence in the Peres Centre for... "Peace". I cannot write the name of a murderer Zionist without cringing in my chair, while she can stand amongst the Zionists who supported killing of children in Gaza as they teach her about peace (and the speaker is Martin Luther King Jr. III !). This is Oslo's culture.
(The programme was sent to me through email, and I couldn't find it on the web, so email me to forward it).

The Left in the Arab World

Comrade Ghassen writes about the left in the Arab world. I disagree with comrade Ghassen concerning the Arab intellectual. I think that in the Arab world we have witnessed the death of the organic intellectual, the likes of George Habash (with very few exceptions of Arab leftist intellectuals and comrade Ghassen mentions them). I think that the Arab, male, middle class, heterosexual intellectual is the dominant intellectual, and is locked up in his chauvinistic and ego drenched self and I have a problem with that. Might I remind you of the professor at Georgetown again: the one who thinks that BDS is a waste of time and leads to nothing, and who enjoys spreading his legs in STARBUCKS as Israel bombs the lives out of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and reduces the 1948 Arabs and other minorities into second class citizens.

US-Israeli murder: "Can I shoot 'em?"

US soldiers slaughter a dozen Iraqis and wound two children from an Apache helicopter. You can hear the eagerness of the soldiers to kill: "Can I shoot 'em?", "There's one crawling on the curb, shoot him," and "Good job!" Then they come into the slaughter site, with their guns and ignorance, and run over a dead body and you can hear the soldier in the Apache helicopter laugh and zoom into the body ran over with his camera! "Ha! They ran over a dead body." This is what the US-Israeli war machine looks like, and that is what we look to them: cockroaches to be crushed with. I was told this video was published a few hours ago. (Efharisto GK)