BDS?

The host on one of the Aljazeera news broadcasts was asking what is defining in the solidarity of people with Palestine... no one even mentioned BDS and its achievements and the organizations that actually supported the Palestinian BDS call. Now, there is a point in what Khadija Bin Qenna* was speaking about when she said that those activists demonstrating in London, for instance, are actually individually opposed and do not speak about the position of their governments. I mean, this is what the BDS global movement is trying to do: mobilize and create lobbies and we cannot neglect the extremely important fact that what the Palestinian BDS achieved since 2004 is more than what the South African BDS call acheived in 30 years and this is something that many anti-apartheid South African icons of the struggle admit! This is just the beginning of making BDS mainstream, and we have to realize, that yes, it isn't, but again, what we achieved till now especially after Gaza 2009 and the Mavi Marmara massacre is Gi-normous in comparison!

*Aljazeera news broadcaster since 1997

Open Letter to Thomas Quasthoff

Courageous letter by Israeli citizens who support the Palestinian BDS call to Thomas Quastoff to cancel his Israel performances.

Stuttgart Declaration for justice in Palestine

Stuttgart declaration to be signed by people who believe in justice and accountability for peace to be reached. This declaration was issued as a closing document from the Palestine Solidarity conference (see below)

Zionism this week

Report from PCHR
5 activists of the Palestinian resistance were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip. Another 4 activists were wounded by Israeli air strikes. IOF continued to fire at Palestinian workers, farmers and fishermen in border areas in the Gaza Strip. Two Palestinian workers, including a child, and one shepherd were wounded Israeli warplanes attacked a number of targets in the Gaza Strip. A factory of dairy products was destroyed in the southern Gaza Strip A house and a grocery were destroyed and another two houses were damaged in Rafah . A bird farm was damaged and 1,800 chickens were killed. Two sites of the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) were destroyed. IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank. 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded IOF arrested 5 human rights defenders. IOF conducted 34 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank . IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children. Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world. Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem. IOF demolished a houses and forced two Palestinian civilians to demolish their houses in Jerusalem . IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and propert. Israeli settlers attacked two children in Jenin and burnt a cattle of sheep in Nablus IOF demolished a house in Bethlehem and 4 stores in Hebron IOF confiscated 50 donums of land in Beit Eksa village near Jerusalem

Comrade Haidar Eid: Two Years after The Horror!

Comrade Haidar writes as the second anniversary of the Israeli massacre against Palestinians in Gaza gets closer.

Off to Lebanon and Cyprus

Ghazzawiyya is off to Lebanon and Cyprus, but will try hard to blog from there

Ahmad Yousef

According to this hypocritical mouthpiece of Hamas, there are no human rights violations in Gaza by Talibani Hamas.

Bon Jovi wants to entertain apartheid?

A comrade says it is not yet confirmed.

Fairouz as it snows

listening to Fairouz as it snows...It's sad, but sad and romantic.

whether you like it or not

... Mohammad Mounir is the King! 'Ally Soutak (Raise your voice)

media hooligans and bullies in Canada harrass anti-apartheid student

"We fully support and commend Ms. Peto and OISE-University of Toronto faculty for their continued defense of the thesis. Entitled "The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education” Ms. Peto, who is herself Jewish and the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, takes a critical look at Zionist Holocaust education. She presents the argument that today, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust are often used to deflect criticism of Israel. Far from being an anti-Semitic tirade, this thesis is an anti-racist reclamation of Jewish history and a denunciation of those who abuse this history in support of the policies of the State of Israel including apartheid."

No brotherhood with apartheid!

Our new letter from PSCABI to Brothers for Brotherhood against there performance in the Eilat Red Sea Jazz Festival.

Formers

Why is it that only former parliamentarians, former presidents, former ministers, etc etc etc suddenly 'eurika'! get to realize Palesitnian reality?
"26 former top EU officials, including ex EU chief Solana and former German President Richard von Weizsacker, urge world powers to confront Jerusalem over its refusal to obey international law."

whether you like it or not

...mohammad mounir is the king! Yasmina. (thank you comrade Street Fighter)

More videos from the Stuttgart conference

videos from the One State Conference in Stuttgart, November 26-28, 2010

Lubna Masarwa Haidar Eid Ali Abunimah Ilan Pappe Mazin Qumsiyeh

Never to Forgive, Never to Forget

"That's what is so nice, supposedly about Gaza. You see a person walking on a road... He doesn't have to be with a weapon, you don't have to identify him with anything and you can just shoot him. With us it was an old woman on whom I didn't see any weapon. The order was to take that woman out, the moment you see her." (An Israeli soldier)

and I thought London was cold!

"One can recognize a great cold, she explains to me, by the bright, shining mist that hangs in the air. When a person walks, a corridor forms in the mist. The corridor has the shape of that person's silhouette. The person passes, but the corridor remains, immobile in the mist. A large man makes a huge corridor, and a small child--a small corridor. Tanya makes a narrow corridor, because she is slender, but, for her age, it is a high one--which is understandable; she is after all the tallest in her class. Walking out in the morning, Tanya can tell from these corridors whether her girlfriends have already gone to school--they all know what the corridors of their closest neighbors and friends look like.
Here is a wide, low corridor with a distinct, resolute line--the sign that Claudia Matveyevna, the school principal, has already gone.
If in the morning there are no corridors that correspond to the stature of students from the elementary school, it means that the cold is so great that classes have been canceled and the children are staying home.
Sometimes one sees a corridor that is very crooked and then abruptly stops. It means--Tanya lowers her voice--that some drunk was walking, tripped, and fell. In a great cold, drunks frequently freeze to death. Then such a corridor looks like a dead end street."

from Ryszard Kapuscinski. 1994. Imperium. trans. Klara Glowczewska. Grata Press pg: 182-3

He entered the Soviet Union from the trans Siberian railway and this is when he was in Yakutsk in Siberia. His other writings about Ethiopia and Iran were criticized to be essentialist and ignorant and he tried to fit them into a model so as to make an analogy with what was happening in the USSR. Despite the flaws, he is a very engaging writer.

Industrial Workers of the World for BDS

"This vote makes the IWW the first union in the US and the third union in Canada to officially support the Palestinian United Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions."

Conversation with Omar Barghouti

Comrade Ghassen Ben Khelifa goes one on one with Omar. Interview published in Al-Adab and is in Arabic, I might translate a few bits later.

One state conference in Stuttgart

This was a conference organized by the Palestine Solidarity committee in Stuttgart, Germany. Ilan Pappe, Ali Abunimah, Mazen Qumsiyyeh and comrade Haidar Eid amongst others were key note speakers. Videos taken can be watched here

All Along the Watchtower: the hobo and the gypsy

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited," the thief kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

All Along the Watchtower, written by (the hobo) Bob Dylan and performed by (the gypsy) Jimi Hendrix, 1968

The Slave Ship

"Hope, hope, fallacious hope, where is thy market now?"(J. M. W. Turner)

Racism in the West

"...crude and reductive notions of culture that form the substance of racial politics today are clearly associated with an older discourse of racial and ethnic difference which is everywhere entangled in the history of the idea of culture in the modern West.” It's too long ya Paul! (Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic, 1993 pg: 7)

Comrade Haidar in Berlin

Comrade Haidar Eid speaks in Berlin at the Arab-German Centre for Education and Cooperation about apartheid in Palestine and South Africa. The video is in Arabic, but I might translate later if I have time. There was only one woman present in the audience (Cf. photos)
(I was told that more women came later)

The fascism of the Egyptian mukhabarat and police force

After reading the wikileaks on Egypt, memories of what happened at the Rafeh Crossing against Palestinians came back. I never could have imagined that I would see an elderly man dragged and pulled visciously by the police. Or, an elderly woman having to beg while on her knees, crying, that her son was in Ain Shams hospital only to be declined entry by an officer stuffing his face with Baklava. Or, a young man in a wheel chair being pulled from his jumper by a mukhabarat (intelligence) officer. I remember comrade Jenny (Linnell) and her courage in screaming no to the Egyptian officers' faces as they refused her entry to Egypt. The same thing happen to courageous people in Egypt who dare to say no. Fascism. That's the word. Fascism happens while Mubarak spreads his legs in Sharm el Sheikh slaving around to the White man.

"God meant to punish them with death and you saved them. Why?"

"He sardonically questioned why US NAVCENT forces had gone to the trouble of rescuing foundering Iranian hashish smugglers two weeks earlier, saying "God meant to punish them with death and you saved them. Why?" Characterizing the previous Saturday's provincial elections as a "huge success," Shaykh Jaber expressed his belief that President Obama and the US had the tools necessary to successfully confront all challenges. END SUMMARY." Slave wants Master to pat him on the head. END SUMMARY

Sons of Hashim

"The metaphor most commonly deployed by Jordanian officials when discussing Iran is of an octopus whose tentacles reach out insidiously to manipulate, foment, and undermine the best laid plans of the West and regional moderates. Iran's tentacles include its allies Qatar and
Syria, Hizballah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, an Iraqi government sometimes seen as supplicant to Tehran, and Shia communities throughout the region"

Smiling cow no longer smiling

"He believes that "as a result of the invasion of Iraq, Iran is spreading everywhere." He urged the U.S. to be wary of what Iran says. "They are big, fat liars and justify their lies because they believe it is for a higher purpose." He said he believes this opinion is shared by other leaders in the region. Nonetheless, he opined that no Arab state will join the U.S. in a defense relationship
vis-a-vis Iran out of fear of "sabotage and Iranian terrorism."" How racist, slavish and fascist. And you wonder about the plight of the Arab masses...

Mubarak sucking up

"He said the U.S. "cannot withdraw until you strengthen the armed forces
and police. Until then you have to stay."

"He told you to cut off the head of the snake"

"The King, Foreign Minister, Prince Muqrin, and
Prince Nayif all agreed that the Kingdom needs to cooperate
with the US on resisting and rolling back Iranian influence
and subversion in Iraq. The King was particularly adamant on
this point, and it was echoed by the senior princes as well.
Al-Jubeir recalled the King's frequent exhortations to the US
to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons
program. "He told you to cut off the head of the snake," he
recalled to the Charge', adding that working with the US to
roll back Iranian influence in Iraq is a strategic priority
for the King and his government"

Wikileaks: Moment of (farce) Truth

I'm loving the wikileaks moment of truth frenzy.

I am translating what As'ad Abukhalil said about this on the 'From Washington' program (aljazeera). I don't have the time to translate what the other two guests had to say but will try later. I found what they had to say very important but naive at times (waiting for the other side--what other side, there is no side in this equation).

What I like about As'ad is that he is not afraid of anyone and speaks it without beautifying it disregarding consequences. الرأي قبل شجاعة الشجعان هو الأول و هي في المحل الثاني (المتنبي what I also appreciate about As'ad, unlike many other Arab men intellectuals, is that he takes feminism very very very seriously. It's NOT something to joke about, rape is not funny, discrimination no matter how slight is not something to joke about, citizenship laws in Lebanon and elsewhere are not to be taken lightly and neither is the obsession with the appearance of the woman. Many women are put in circumstances no one should bear but are confronted with them simply because they are women. But really, not only does this person preach it, it is also part of his life as well and he is very principled. Someone like that shows up every once in a million. Chapeau bas, As'ad Abukhalil.

Mohammad el-Alami (presenter): ...do you think that the countries mentioned in the documents would be able to get over the scandal?

As'ad: Let me first comment on what happened then on the content. What happened was striking in that the first scandal was in the Arab media--including this station (aljazeera) that I respect--because they covered up the severity of the information included in the documents that have to do with contemporary politics in the Arab world over the last few decades. There are tokens and variations in these documents that speak about an alliance between Israel and Arab countries and we have to make a distinction here between Arab regimes and the Arab people, because there is a huge difference. These documents showed us that the Arab media covered up information because it was an embarrassment not to US policy but to the Arab regimes. The level of servility and absolute loyalty that those Arab unelected rulers have towards the US is more than we could have imagined. I will have to clearly share with the Arab audiences what is mentioned in these documents. The US can get over the embarrassment easily because it can humiliate Arab leaders and still be able to have them declare their loyalty to her. What is in these documents is the following: First of all, in the Israeli related documents, a US diplomat says that the Saudi Arabian government has links to Israel other than those of the Ministry of Foreign affairs; meaning the Saudi secret services under the control of Prince Muqrin. There is a lot of focus on Iran too. And I have to point out that the New York times is shamelessly and selectively publishing certain contents of these documents for the sake of turning public opinion against Iran, to prepare for a war against it. And it was so obvious that Arab governments compete amongst themselves in their loyalty not to America only, but to Israel too. And we notice that in all of the exposed private discussions there was a fear of a possible Iranian nuclear attack and no talk what so ever amongst any of these leaders about Israeli nuclear weapons. In addition, in one of these documents the UAE Chief of Military Staff--and it seems that the sons of Zayed are more insistent than the sons of Hashim in Jordan in their loyalty to Israel-- justifies the possibility of Israel attacking Iran. The Leban[on]ese prime minister who visited Iran two days ago, said in 2006 that an American war against Iran is necessary. So, what one might conclude is that the Arab world is subject to rulers who are slavishly loyal to Israel today. In other words, they are sucking up to Israel in an effort to gain Washington's acceptance. And it seems that this effort is actually fruitful [...] and the worst of what appeared to us in this radical conspiracy theory is what is most obviously the complicity of Arab rulers with Israel and the US--and this is what is important [...] what we need to know is that these documents provide a refutation to the US claims of spreading democracy and human rights. It was clear to me after I spent long hours of the night reading those documents that there was no mention what so ever of human rights issues by any US diplomat except with a meeting in Syria. And on the contrary, there was this one meeting with an unimportant US diplomat with the Saudi King--servant of the US and Israeli affairs--where the diplomat said he was in favour of the progression of human rights in the kingdom--which is one of the countries where there are most human rights violations--

[...]

Moh'd el-Alammi: [...] the Iranian reaction from what came on behalf of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadi Najad was undermining what came in these documents and what he claimed to be a psychological war that Washington launches against his country, maybe he also interpreted this as a conspiracy theory in your opinion?

As'ad: Actually, I don't know the reason for this unintelligent statement by the Iranian president. This could be an attempt to outwit or ignore what came in these documents from hatred not only to the Iranian government but towards the Iranian people. Also, the attempt to use Arab governments to ignite the Sunni-Shi'aa conflict was very obvious and with the consent of Israel. What I see is that Iran is trying to withdraw from this campaign especially after what the New York times selectively published as did other western newspapers. What is also to be noticed is that non of the information leaked up till now could cause an embarrassment to Israel. It is true that there was one document that included a private discussion by the ex-Israeli head of the mossad, Dagan, speaking about the Arab regimes and saying that the Saudi king does not exhibit any animosity towards Israel. And there was also some unpleasant talk about Israel planning on spending almost 6 billion dollars to support the Dahlan and Abu Mazen regime in Ramallah... all these things do not embarrass Israel but embarrasses its allies. We can try and analyze the situation in the Arab world as Tamim [Barghouti*- who was also on the show] did in terms of the balance of power (equilibrium) theory... but, these countries are not allowed to make their own decisions and to try to explain it in terms of theories of international relations will not do. When I was reading these documents, I was trying to compare it with the days of the Emiratean protectorates and the marginalization of their decisions during the time of British colonization and they were even more free than the reality they are now in; meaning that America exercises absolute power. There is, for instance, a document showing how one American diplomat issues an order to the Saudi regime to send a diplomatic team to China and the document shows how this was done: 'first of all, do this.. secondly, do this and that' and this is the reality today.

[...]

Moh'd el-Alami: [speaking about the cold war and the role of Moscow now in coordinating with the US in controlling things in Korea and Iran and internal US affairs between republicans and democrats] the how do you interpret this resistance on behalf the republicans [...] and the willingness to use it to defeat Obama internally?

As'ad: This is proof of a rising self-confidence amongst republicans and the emergence of an extremist rightist team within the republicans that scared the majority of them representing in the congress, and there is actually but one of them the daring congressman Richard Lugan who openly supported START [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] ad I have to point out that Obama asked for the help of Zionist and Jewish organizations which issued an official statement supporting Obama's decision of signing START which in turn --as I read in one of the US newspapers-- Obama would support the Israeli side of any negotiations in the future. I would also like to excuse myself of any naivety that I might convey, as the other two guests [Barghouti and Khalil Jahshan**] suggested we wait and see the reaction of the Other in this, the Arab reaction. I say that I don't believe that any of the Arab counterparts would say in private that they hope for the liberation of Palestine and I agree with Tamim that we shouldn't focus on one regime but all of them. For instance, the head of the Mossad praises Saniora, what does that mean? The Yemeni president---[interrupted]

[the rest of the interview deals with the republicans, Obama and the democrats, START and the security measures in US airports]

*professor of political science at Georgetown University

** professor of international studies at Pepperdine University