From Haaretz:
The Gaza Strip’s first international documentary festival, which will end tomorrow, began nearly a month after the scheduled date because Israel’s blockade made it difficult for organizers to get the films that will be screened there. . .
Palestinian director Riad Shahin, who is running the festival, told the Al-Arabiya television station that organizers had to use weapons-smuggling tunnels to bring some of the films into Gaza. The movies come from countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Egypt and even Israel.
"In many cases, we had to use the smuggling tunnels that link Gaza to Egypt in order to secure the festival material," Shahin said.
I realize this is OT, but everyone should read this interview:
link to pulsemedia.org
Ali Abunimah, in an interview that Haaretz did with him but refused to publish, said the following: one of the best pieces of logic I’ve read in a long time. A PulseMedia contributor translated it from the Hebrew>
Expect Witty to latch on to your post like a rabid pit bull and completely ignore the actual topic of the article.
Just as a warning, you know. He never misses an opportunity to attack a Palestinian intellectual.
That said, it’s a fascinating article. I think, unfortunately, Abunimah’s read on the situation is dead on, especially as to why the two-state solution is no real solution. Doesn’t say much for Ha’aretz that they are shaving out interviews with Palestinians now, does it? They used to be a journalistic outlet of some reliability. But I guess if the New York Times could be subverted, well… it was only a matter of time, perhaps.
As an artist myself, I found this particular response of his to be profound, and is something that is often glossed over by the Israeli PR machine:
Maybe we can see the Pulse article you cited become an entry and topic of discussion of its own right here on Mondoweiss? You can consider this an open plea for such to the site mods. :)
Chaos, I hope it does. Liked the spiritual reference. That is the wave of the future. The 20th C is over.
Maybe you could at least wait til the blowhard shows up before hijacking the thread to attack him?
Maybe you could sit on your hands if you’ve got nothing to contribute at present? I like what you have to say, potsherd, when you aren’t being a drama queen.
What do you have to contribute, besides making this site all about two irrelevant fatheads instead of one?
Maybe the stuff MRW responded too, hmm?
I’m sure Witty and his “progressive Zionist” friends will be right over here… to defend Israel’s rights to blockade Gaza in such a comprehensive and excruciating fashion as to make unfettered expression (free speech in cinemagraphic form, ostensibly) hampered, along with basic human necessities, medical equipment, school supplies, etc. whereas merely choosing not to attend or invite similar Israeli functions, why, that’s unconscionable! Because that’s a violation of “free speech” as Witty sees it. And apparently only Jewish people deserve free speech, as far as he’s concerned.
Well,
I see the topic title as an admission that the cultural BDS is absurd, wrong, and punitive in orientation.
Perhaps not exactly as I predicted but also a stock Witty strategy: nitpick the headline and completely ignore the article itself.
I got the article. Did you get my response?
Are you an advocate of absurdity, or of humanity?
Are you an advocate of hasbara, or of humanity?
Uh, of course he got your response.
All you did was ask a loaded question.
BDS is not absurd. BDS is about humanity. It’s about justice. Israel is a criminal State. An oppressive State. And BDS is the only way ordinary people from around the world who care about the Palestinian cause and who care about justice and human rights can do something about it.
Only fascists and racists like you want to stop BDS.
Its presented as humane.
But those that are subject to it experience it as isolation, shunning, in a never-ending stream of the same.
They can’t distinguish this shunning from prior shunning. Relative to the US, to Europe, Israel is small.
To Israelis and those sympathetic with Israelis at all, the argument gets lost. The Goliath becomes the David, by the action.
living in opposite world.
BDS vis a vis Israel is wrong because it would “subject it to experience isolation.”
But sanctioning Iran is right and desireable, because it will subject it to experience isolation.
Iran is evil because it announces that it has been building a nuclear facility that does not yet have nuclear materials. Because Iran is evil, it must be sanctioned.
Israel is sacrosanct because it maintains “nuclear ambiguity,” and in the event mere smoke and mirrors fails to confuse American lawmakers about Israel’s nukes, Israelis take inspectors on a tour of a sham facility….
Israeli soldiers kill innocent civilians with internationally sanctioned weapons; reports criticizing Israel’s actions are squelched; the soldiers who used that white phosphorus are called “moral.”
The most heavily armed military in the MidEast needs more weapons: Ex-IAEA inspector: Press Iran harder
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER , JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON
presumably, Israel needs more weapons to express its wittian “humanity.”
Sorry, but what Israel is doing to the Palestinians is inhumane. What Israeli society by and large does and does not do – contributes to these inhumane actions towards the Palestinians.
Israelis are the Masters and Palestinians are the Slaves.
We are not obligated to sympathize w/ or try to reconcile w/ the Masters.
The notion that the world would see Israel as the ‘David’ once again is a joke. After the latest massacre – no one is going to sympathize w/ Israel who already doesn’t. There will be no change in that sentiment.
And furthermore, you are projecting your own intellectual dishonesty and Nazism upon others.
Normal people understand that colonial entities, oppressive entities, do not come quietly. They do not change on their own. They require pressure.
Only fascist like you Witty, go on and on about BDS being hurtful to the Israelis while ignoring the real oppression of the Palestinians by Israelis.
I mean, you truly are insane.
Thats a rationalization that I never buy.
I sympathize with human beings, masters and/or slaves. (Most are both at the same time.)
I don’t oppose BDS outright if concise, non-punitive in orientation, imaginative, led by those that are humane (not only adopting non-violence as a clever tactic).
Bullshit, Witty. Where are you speaking out about Mohammed Othman if you’re such a fan of nonviolent resistance? Hell, where are you speaking out about Israel’s siege for that matter? You don’t even mention it in your post!
Wittypocrisy.
For Adam,
The title is a clever irony. Its up there with the potentially effective Free Gaza boats (a strategy that has been abandoned).
It hasn’t been ‘abandoned’ you racist. Those people are organizing the Gaza march. They are working all the time for the cause.
You want them to fail. You want the Palestinians to suffer.
You’re not a liberal. You’re a Jewish racist and supremacist. Which is why you whine about BDS but ignore and never talk about the oppression of the Palestinians. If you do you always downplay it.
Yeah, horray for the status quo!
link to israel-palestinenews.org
Wow, you really are a completely misinformed person, aren’t you?
link to freegaza.org
Incidentally, you go on and on and on about violence originating from the Palestinian movement and not a single word do you speak about the violence — for instance, the attacks and piracy on Free Gaza boats by the Israeli navy — origination from Israel.
You make a fool out of yourself every time, Witty. I have to say, I am impressed at your capacity to stand around virtually pantless and still act like you’re the smartest guy in the room.
Well – the Israeli cultural boycott – is one of the many of its Zionazi policies which declared it the 4th most dangerous country in the world among the 144 countries analysed by GPi in its 2009 report. Interestingly, even Islamic Iran, Lebanon and Pakistan were declared safer than Israel.
Israel: World’s 4th most dangerous country
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com