Protest at the Erez checkpoint in southern Israel. (Photo: Michael Ratner) All along the idea for the Gaza Freedom March was that there would be a march inside Gaza once the delegation arrived, and a concurrent march to the Erez checkpoint on the Israeli side of the checkpoint. Although most of the Gaza Freedom March […]
Protest and police in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. (Photo: diptychal) Mondoweiss reader Michael Brown sent this: I finally found my Dad in the crowd. We were split up when he was pulled out first by the head. I got a vicious kick to the ribs around that time, but wasn’t pulled out for another two minutes. […]
It is safe to assume that at about the time the Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina announced its plans to enter Gaza, Egypt also made plans, in consultation with their Israeli, American and occasionally Jordanian counterparts. They probably looked something like this: 1. Let the organizers think from the beginning that there is a […]
From a Gaza Freedom March press release: Members of the Gaza Freedom March are being forcibly detained in hotels around town (Lotus, Liala) as well as violently forced into pens in Tahrir Square by Egyptian police and additional security forces. Reports of police brutality are flooding a delegate legal hotline faster than the legal support […]
Today the Gaza Freedom March fragmented slightly when in the face of stern opposition from their fellows about 80 people headed off to Gaza on buses, the rest staying in Cairo. But wait, weren’t you trying to go to Gaza? Yes, but it has been quite a drama. How to state this clearly…
Flashpoints – December 30, 2009 at 5:00pm Click to listen (or download) Today’s Flashpoints features great interviews with Hedy Epstein from Cairo on the Gaza Freedom March, and Joe Sacco on his important new book Footnotes in Gaza, which deals with Israeli massacres in Rafah and Khan Younis in 1956 (read an excerpt here). In […]
From the UN News Centre: The United Nations independent expert on Palestinian rights has again called for a threat of economic sanctions against Israel to force it to lift its blockade of Gaza, which is preventing the return to a normal life for 1.5 million residents after the devastating Israeli offensive a year ago. “Obviously […]
This post is part of a week-long series of interviews with Jewish Israelis discussing their connection to the idea of Zionism. We hope this series will spark a conversation over the what Zionism means today. For more on these interviews see this post. Tom Mehager “It used to be that service wasn’t a question,” Tom […]
A Palestinian boy looks up from inside a damaged house after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 30, 2008. (Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) Khulood Ghanem, 27, kept a Gaza diary a year ago. Its full text (as adapted by Edward Mast in the U.S.) is here. What follows is […]
The latest from Cairo is that the Gaza Freedom March has rejected the Egyptian government’s offer to allow 100 protesters into Gaza. A press release from the march states: After three days of vigils and demonstrations in downtown Cairo, Suzanne Mubarak’s offer to allow just 100 of 1,300 delegates to enter Gaza was rejected by […]
The following is a response to the profile of Jesse Fox that we posted yesterday. We will be posting interviews all week with Jewish Israelis discussing their connection to the idea of Zionism in the hope of sparking a conversation over the what Zionism means today. Jesse, My wife and I were active in the […]
Protest at the United Nation building in Cairo (Photo: Rafaella Lima) As the Gaza Freedom March finally makes the pages of the New York Times, Egypt has announced that they will allow 100 members of the march to enter Gaza. This is from the over 1,300 people in Cairo who have assembled to enter the […]
(Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy) The above photo is from Arabist.net. The caption reads: Local and international activists demonstrating in front of the Press Syndicate, downtown Cairo, against Mubarak’s Wall of Shame. In the pic above, an activist is carrying a banner that reads: The Liberation of Jerusalem starts with the liberation of Cairo.
A year since the assault on Gaza, Israel continues to evade accountability. The failure of the international community to use the Goldstone Report to address the war crimes committed during the fighting has been a boon to the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. This movement seeks to hold Israel accountable through […]
This post is part of a week-long series of interviews with Jewish Israelis discussing their connection to the idea of Zionism. We hope this series will spark a conversation over the what Zionism means today. For more on these interviews see this post. Jesse Fox Urban planner and activist Jesse Fox is less encouraged by […]
Protest in Cairo (Photo: Michael Ratner) 11:14 am, Dec. 30 – Joshua Smith wrote us with this clarification of his report below: I just came across your report in response of Cindy’s article of which myself and Mike Hearington gave her. Cindy’s reference to "cell" means a bounded space. And the story "IS" accurate. I […]
While there is no doubt that Israel holds military superiority over any possible armed force it might go to war with, there is another threat that Israel appears to have no response for – moral outrage. The Jerusalem Post covers a new report which outlines Israel’s true Achilles heal. From the article "Hubs of delegitimization": […]
The following is a response to the profile of Sivan Fridman that we posted yesterday. We will be posting interviews all week with Jewish Israelis discussing their connection to the idea of Zionism in the hope of sparking a conversation over the what Zionism means today. I have to admit that I was agitated after […]
Gaza Freedom March delegates in Cairo. (Photo: codepinkhq) The Egyptian authorities have told the organizers of the Gaza Freedom March once, twice, three times and four that we can’t go to Gaza, but the organizers will go back a fifth, sixth and seventh time, Medea Benjamin promised outside the U.N. offices in Cario here today. […]
Hedy Epstein in Cairo with school supplies for Gaza (Photo: Ali Abunimah) About two weeks ago we posted on Hedy Epstein’s challenge to Elie Wiesel to travel to Gaza. She is now in Cairo trying to get into Gaza, and has embarked on a hunger strike to pressure the Egyptian government to let the Gaza […]
Over the next week we will be sharing a project from Tel Aviv-based freelance journalist and writer Mya Guarnieri. She has interviewed a group of Jewish Israelis on what Zionism means to them. We share these profiles as part of our continuing effort to challenge and complicate the idea of Zionism today. Guarnieri explains the reason for […]
Cairo, Egypt Yesterday we joined the people of Gaza, the people of all of Palestine, and allies around the world in remembering the anniversary of the inhuman and illegal Israeli attacks that stole the lives of more than 1,400 mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons last December and January. And, in a manner far too appropriately […]
Here are the top headlines today from Haaretz: If anyone can reconcile the second and third stories, please let me know. It seem perhaps a mashup of the headlines would work best – "Netanyahu: No more excuses – time is ripe to build 700 new homes in East Jerusalem."
Remember Haaretz informing us that every Obama appointee must be vetted by the pro-Israel organizations? Here Jeffrey Goldberg praises an Israeli, Shmuel Rosner, for writing that an Obama appointee (a Jewish woman who calls Israel her "homeland," no less) should be canned because she won’t get along with Jewish organizations. (Thanks to Sullivan, who conflates "neocons" […]