The Only Democracy? » Search Results for "new israel fund"
Please Help the Enrichment Learning Program at the Cave Dwellers Village Umm-Fakra
Dear Friends, We are appealing to you to ask your assistance in operating a learning enrichment program for the children of the cave-dwellers’ community of Umm-Fakra. For the last two years we have assisted in conducting an enrichment programs for children in the Bedouin communities of Umm El-Kheir, bordering on the settlement of Carmel. In light of the positive experience with such programs, and in response to a local initiative – we would like to assist in opening yet another center of learning enrichment programs for children in South Mount Hebron, this time in the locality Umm-Fakra. The annual cost for the first pilot year is estimated at only $4,000 or 3,000 Euro. The Villages Group is able to offer tax-deductible donation via partners in the US and UK (see our donation link … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Correction to the disclaimer, and Happy Hanukkah
By Jesse Bacon On Tuesday, I posted about a free documentary screening. I then edited that post when I learned that the film received Israeli government funding. I provided the disclaimer for folks who are observing the full cultural boycott of Israel, (which my sponsor Jewish Voice for Peace is not). However, it turns out that the actual call for cultural boycott does not demand the boycott of films simply for receiving government funding, only those … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
What Is, and Isn’t, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement
By Emily Schaeffer The call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel is gaining momentum. At the same time, it is widely misinterpreted, unfortunately by skeptics, opponents and proponents alike.The basic premise behind BDS movements initiated by civil society is that they are a grassroots, international, non-violent means of expressing stern disapproval of a country’s choice to oppress or discriminate against a group of people in contravention of international law and principles of equality, humanity … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Victories for Democracy
Terry Fletcher responds to Audrey Farber’s post on Palestinian democracy
In her recent post A true Democracy; if Israel would only let it, Audrey Farber paints a very rosy picture of Palestinian democracy, both present and future. Other commentators and human rights organizations paint a quite different picture, at least of the present. In this New York Review of Books article, Nathan Thrall asserts, A year into Fayyad’s first term, Mamdouh al-Aker, then head of the PA’s human rights organization, spoke of the government’s “militarization” and asserted that “a state of lawlessness had shifted to a sort of a security state, a police state.” Charges of authoritarianism have intensified since. Abbas, whose term expired during the war in Gaza, has been ruling by presidential decree. There has been no legislature since June 2007, and judicial rulings are frequently ignored by the security … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discrimination
No positive evidence supporting accusations against Ameer Makhoul
By Rela Mazali On May 8th, Jewish Peace News posted news of the arrest or, more precisely, abduction, of human rights defender Ameer Makhoul, “Director of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations – … in the dead of night, while he and his family slept in their home in Haifa.” The arrest of this “Israeli citizen [and] … high-profile activist … [was] placed under a gag order … Israeli reporters, news … Read entire article »
Filed under: Human Rights Activists in the Crosshairs
Salem Music Center: 3-Year Plan
The Salem Music Center is a venture developing gradually thanks to the ongoing cooperation between its local Palestinian initiators, from the village of Salem near Nablus, the Israeli volunteers of the Villages Group, and donors from Israel and abroad (especially from Australia and the U.S). The first stage of this project, based on a proposal submitted last year, started on March 2010. The center’s founding team includes the project initiator Mr. Jubier Ihstayya (who serves … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Palestinian on Hunger Strike in Berlin for Family Rights in East Jerusalem
From the Palestinian rights group Al Haq. (Ed’s note: As many of us celebrate the ruling supporting marriage equality in the case of California, it bears remembering how Palestinians still face discrimination based on who they choose to wed.) 12 August 2010 As a Palestinian NGO committed to the promotion and protection of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Al-Haq is deeply concerned about Firas Al-Maraghi’s hunger strike that he has been holding since 26 July 2010 opposite the Israeli embassy in Berlin, Germany. Firas, a Palestinian resident of occupied East Jerusalem who is married to a German national, is protesting a decision which was taken by the Israeli embassy to ban the couple’s … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discrimination
May you have good grief: Tisha B’ Av on the Only Democracy?
by Jesse Bacon I just got done observing Tisha B’ Av, the 9th of Av a relatively new Jewish holiday commemorating the destruction of the Temples. Having attended liberal Tisha B’ Av observances for several years, I must have noticed the part about how the messiah will be born on Tisha B’Av, or to take it out of religious person, there will be redepmtion grown from the seeds of cataclysm. Until this year, I was fortunate that TIAA-CREF, the focus of Jewish Voice for Peace’s first divestment campaign chose Tisha B’ Av to hold their annual meeting. For the first time, I got to act out hope and grief, activism and religious observance simultaneously as I helped organize a delegation of members of TIAA-CREF’s retirement fund to speak out about the effects … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
A Nonviolent Che Guevara in Gaza
By Ashely Bates, reprinted from her Dispatches from Gaza blog with permission (Ed’s note. The spreading of the unarmed protests for real democracy to Gaza shows that the tactic is working. And if it works people will want to try it, in ways that defy stereotypes of “violent” Hamas-controlled Gaza. The only difference is that Israel can get away with a harsher response in Gaza so paying attention to stories like this is all the more … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
At the Waldorf, Helmet in Hand
By Rela Mazali & Diana Dolev Israeli generals live a life of luxury and extravagance, mostly shaded from public scrutiny, while their soldiers enforce a brutal and criminal occupation upon the Palestinian people. Now they appropriately choose the Waldorf Astoria in New York to solicit more American money. New Profile, an Israeli feminist movement for the civil-zation of Israeli society, asks US citizens to just say NO. On Tuesday March 9 the US-based non-profit “Friends of the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discrimination
Interactive Video
“You have a choice! Israeli Anti-Militarists Speak”
Four Israelis—Dorothy Naor, Sergeiy Sander and Eli Fabrikant, and Ofer Golani—talking about their personal histories, political views and activism in 132 short films.