The Only Democracy? » Entries tagged with "Palestine"
Major Israeli Theaters Embrace The Settlements (+BIG UPDATE)
Some cultural news from Israel: Several of Israel’s leading theater companies have agreed to perform in the new cultural center in the settlement of Ariel, due to open on November 8. The companies include the Habima National Theater, the Cameri Theater, the Be’er Sheva Theater and Jerusalem’s Khan Theater. Ariel lies 20km inside the West Bank, deeper than any other sizable settlement. The divided highway leading to it – the best road in the West Bank – is open to Israelis only, *and* lacks any signs naming the numerous Palestinian towns and villages flanking the road. According to Peace Now’s 2006 settlement land report, 35% of Ariel’s area was confiscated from private Palestinian owners by military fiat. The rest is public land. No patch of Ariel’s lands was rightfully purchased. Occupied Palestinians … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
It’s getting deep in here…
Last month a post appeared on the Jewish Daily Forward’s blog “the sisterhood: where jewish women converse” entitled “Code Pink: Slinging Mud and Hate at Ahava,” which got the target of CODEPINK’s boycott campaign correct, but not much more. Debra Nussbaum Cohen’s blog presented a falsely black-and-white portrayal of the campaign, declaring it “anti-Israel”. Cohen singled me out as a Jewish woman in support of the boycott, which was “most distressing” to her … Read entire article »
Filed under: Human Rights Activists in the Crosshairs, Talkback
Israeli and Palestinian Women Find New Way to Challenge The Occupation
I will forgo my tendency for long introductions, and start with the actual news. We Do Not Obey More women follow Ilana Hammerman`s footsteps: we shall not obey illegal and immoral laws. (posted as a paid advertisement in Hebrew on Haaretz, August 6) On Friday, July 23, we went on a trip – a dozen Jewish-Israeli women with a dozen West-Bank Palestinian women and four of their children, one of them a baby. We drove through the interior hill … Read entire article »
Filed under: Discrimination, Human Rights Activists in the Crosshairs
Susiya’s Second Summer Camp – A Call for Aid
(crossposted on the Villages Group Blog) Dear Friends and Supporters, I’m writing to you in the name of Fatima Nawajeh, the initiator and organizer of Susiya’s summer camp. Susiya is a Palestinian village in Southern West Bank, an area known as Massafar Yatta or South Hebron Hills. For many years the reality of a summer camp inside their community was an unattainable dream for the inhabitants and the children of Palestinian Susiya. Their cave-dwellers’ village was evacuated by the Israeli army in 1986. Once again in 2001, the occupation army expelled Susiya’s residents and destroyed the families’ scattered dwelling places built after the first evacuation. Meanwhile, the nearby settlers of the Jewish Sussya (built and subsidized by the Israeli government on expropriated land in the 1980’s) continue grabbing more and more agricultural … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Our 2 Op-Eds in the Israeli Press about Israel’s Future (2)
My last diary was my translation of an op-ed Ofer Neiman, a fellow Israeli activist, and myself wrote together back in April at Ynet, a mainstream Israeli news site. That article argued that the self-reinforcing siege mentality is gradually taking the taste and meaning out of collective life in Israel. Last week we continued analyzing fundamental issues in Israel’s dealing with the world. The article appeared in Ha’aretz in an online-only, Hebrew-only format. Moreover, while the Ynet article was published pretty much with the same 575 words we wrote, Ha’aretz demanded only 450, and then were arrogant enough to further cut it to 400, change the title and much of the text. Below I translate the original with commentary. In a way, our message is a progressive Israeli response to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
Villages Group: Some Creative Ways to Counter the Occupation
(crossposted from the Villages Group blog, where more pics can be found) The text below, beautifully written by David, can be seen embedded in the images by clicking on this sentence (pdf) The desire for a permanent house is a most conventional desire in our society. A house is usually conceived as a structure of four walls, a floor below and a roof above, and the desire for such a house is mostly fulfilled using the mortgage system. But what seems to be such a conventional desire in many societies may prove rather unconventional in a society living under the conditions of prolonged Occupation. In fact, in the small Bedouin community of Umm al-Kheir, among the families who live close to the settlement of Carmel, such a basic desire for a four walls’ … Read entire article »
Filed under: On The Ground Reports
Our 2 Op-Eds in the Israeli Press about Israel’s Future (1)
(crossposted on Daily Kos) In April, in anticipation of Israel’s independence day, fellow Israeli activist Ofer Neiman sent us an op-ed for feedback. I ended up co-signing the article. It appeared on Ynet, the website of Israel’s largest daily. I planned to translate it to English but was too busy. A couple of weeks ago, as the Gaza flotilla was cruising towards its tragic end, I thought up another article – a sequel if you will. This time it was Ofer who joined me as a co-author, and the article appeared in Haaretz – but wasn’t translated on their English mirror. Both articles deal with Israel’s existential problems rather than focus on current events. The Ynet article reminds Israelis, that the deteriorating quality of our public life bears a direct impact upon the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
Bibi, Stop Racist Talk against Turks and Release All Footage!
(expanded version of Occupation Magazine post) Today (Saturday), Israeli PM `Bibi` again claimed, in rather crude terms, that the reason why the IDF killed 9 activists on Monday but today boarded the MV Rachel Corrie peacefully, is because of “…the difference between a ship of peace activists, with whom we don’t agree but respect their right to a different opinion from ours, and between a ship of hate organised by violent Turkish terror extremists…” This continues a race-baiting campaign against the Turkish ship and IHH, which started well before Monday’s attack. As CindyCasella’s excellent diary shows, just like in previous controversies the Israeli PR machine churns mostly lies. They are already backtracking from a claim IHH has Al Qaeda ties. But they’re still at it. Call Bibi’s racist bluff: demand that Israel release all … Read entire article »
Filed under: Human Rights Activists in the Crosshairs
Israel to World: Screw You, We will Continue to Block Gaza
It all happened before. A ship sailing to Palestine. Its organizers care not so much about the ship’s arrival. They want to bring world attention to the injustices in Palestine. Live broadcasts from aboard the ship excite and inspire supporters on the shores. The power controlling Palestine in a non-democratic manner, responds in form. It sends soldiers to storm the ship at sea some 20 miles out of Gaza. Passengers fight back using non-lethal means. Troops open fire killing 3, then force the ship to another port, arrest the passengers and deport them. The battle is won, but the campaign is lost. World opinion, and other world powers, turn against the controlling power. Within a few months it decides to cede control of Palestine. The ship’s name was “Europe Exodus 1947″, or in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured
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.