If former US president George W. Bush had tuned in to the English broadcast on Syrian TV on Saturday he would have clearly frowned at seeing Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri in Damascus, being greeted warmly as a guest of honour by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad. The footage would probably make him furious — […]
Geography Archives: Palestine
Will You Call the Egyptian Government for the Gaza Freedom March?
URGENT UPDATE December 21, 2009 We are determined to break the siege We all will continue to do whatever we can to make it happen Using the pretext of escalating tensions on the Gaza-Egypt border, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry informed us yesterday that the Rafah border will be closed over the coming weeks, into January. […]
COSATU Delegation to Join the Gaza Freedom March!
This new year’s eve, 31 December 2009, thousands of people and activists from all over the world will gather in Gaza for a historic march against the naked brutality being carried out by Israel in enforcing the illegal occupation there. A COSATU delegation, together with other South Africans, including former Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils, will […]
Gaza Freedom March: Palestinian Non-violence and International Solidarity
I’m going to discuss the utility of non-violent resistance as it applies to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict and, specifically, the occupation and blockade of the Gaza strip. Even more specifically, I’m going to discuss the Gaza Freedom March (GFM), of which I’m one of the organizers. But before discussing Palestinian non-violence, several things must be […]
Open Letter from U.S. Trade Unionists to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka: Boycott Apartheid Israel
“Sanctions alone cannot eradicate apartheid; that task is ultimately left to the people of South Africa themselves. But economic pressure and political isolation of the South African government can hasten the day when justice and freedom reign in that troubled land.” — Richard L. Trumka, June 23, 1987 “We call on other workers and unions […]
International Politics & Contemporary Art: A.S. Dhillon’s World Party/Model UN
A.S. Dhillon’s recent decision to paint again has to be seen not as his abandonment of creating public installations but as a step towards extending his social practice by specifically addressing the specialized audience of contemporary art. This transition from the outside to the gallery, the specialized space of art, is a process that began […]
Bassidji: Talking to the Other Side
A young boy sits on rusted tank tracks in the desert bordering Iran and Iraq. His head is bowed, and he’s sobbing. A few yards away, a dozen bearded men gather around a Shiite cleric. The men weep as the cleric recounts the story of a fearless martyr killed during the Iran-Iraq war. He […]
A “Game Changer” in the Middle East:Interview with Toufic Haddad
Toufic Haddad: A prisoner exchange would be a real game changer in the Middle East if it is actually able to take place. I’m less optimistic that it will. The fact is it would be the first time that a political faction would be able to win such concessions out of Israel. We’re talking about […]
Barack Obama’s Myopic Iran Policy
By giving Israel veto rights and threatening more sanctions, the U.S. is squandering the best chance we have for a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. Ordinarily, it would have been easy to dismiss the latest resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency censuring Iran as a text, drafted by idiots, full of sound […]
The Swiss and the Muslims
The Swiss, known for cheese, Alps, watches, chocolate, and secret bank accounts, at least two of which are full of holes, have now added a sixth important product: intolerance. 57.5 percent of its 8 million population, or of those who went to the polls, voted to forbid minarets next to Muslim mosques. As nearly everyone […]
Israel: Arab Women Workers Need Not Apply
Discrimination, not culture, keeps families in poverty. Israel’s finance minister was accused last week of trying to deflect attention from discriminatory policies keeping many of the country’s Arab families in poverty by blaming their economic troubles on what he described as Arab society’s opposition to women working. A recent report from Israel’s National Insurance Institute […]
On Being Detained by the Israeli Government
The NLG NYC Condemns the Israeli Government for the Detention of African American Political Activists 25 November 2009 The New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild condemns the actions of the Israeli government for its unlawful and racially motivated detention of two African-American political activists. On November 23, 2009, Dhoruba Bin Wahad, […]
Luladinejad
Lula from Brazil and Ahmadinejad from Iran. What is this — the new axis of evil? No — Luladinejad is a new axis of business. In the latest round of the increasingly warm embrace between Latin America and the Middle East, Lula and Ahmadinejad, meeting in Brazil, signed agreements on energy, trade and agricultural […]
The Invention of the Jewish People
Introduction to Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People by Bertell Ollman The Invention of the Jewish People is divided into two parts. The first is a long section on the theory of nationalism, whose main characteristic, according to Sand, is the tendency to invent a past that suits the current needs and […]
Breaking the Vessels
OK, so the Palestinian Authority will not unilaterally declare an independent Palestinian state. In fact, the whole issue seems a misunderstanding. Concerned that the US has backtracked on a two state solution based on the 1967 borders and that Israel was getting the world used to the “fact” that the settlements and the Wall, rather […]
On House Resolution 867: The Real Issue Is the Israeli Occupation
On 3 November 2009, the United States House of Representatives voted 344-36 in favor of House Resolution 867, making it Congress’ official response to the 575-page Report submitted by Justice Richard J. Goldstone to the United Nations Human Rights Council at the conclusion of a “fact-finding” mission on the Gaza conflict. The Resolution does little […]
Goldstonewalled! US Congress Endorses Israeli War Crimes
“It is part of morality not to be at home in one’s home.” — Edward Said On the afternoon of November 3, 2009, the United States House of Representatives voted in favor of House Resolution 867 (H.Res.867), an AIPAC-backed bill that urges both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “oppose unequivocally […]
Women under Occupation
“When you look at conflict zones, in all conflict zones, you see that the more militarized our spaces and our places, the more violence against women increases. . . . This constant anxiety and uncertainty, living in constant uncertainty changes the entire life, especially of a woman. . . . Domestic violence increases, patriarchal, […]
“Obama’s Foreign Policy Report Card”: Juan Cole Grades His President — and Very Positively
Juan Cole’s very positive report card for President Barack Obama’s foreign policy is a bit shocking, given his knowledge and frequent enlightening comments. (“Obama’s Foreign Policy Report Card,” Salon, October 27, 2009.1) “[Obama] receives his lowest grade for his failure to force America’s chattering classes to take notice,” Cole judges — policy issues resolve into […]
The Future of Iranian-American Relations
A shift in US policies toward Iran was already discernible at the end of the Bush presidency. With the extreme right wing of the neoconservative movement marginalized and the US army bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration amended its policies in accordance with a re-assessment of the United States’ capabilities after the […]
