Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 754 (since 2009-10-01 14:26:50)

Pamela Olson

Pamela Olson is the author of Fast Times in Palestine. She blogs here and lives in New York.

Website: http://fasttimesinpalestine.wordpress.com/

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  • UN and Hunter College events feature plight of Bedouin refugees, due to be expelled again from E-1
  • Jamal al-Dura calls on Israeli government to bring him his son
    • Pamela Olson May 24, 2013 at 11:55 am

      Fascinating... This time Israel not only jumped the shark, the shark had a laser gun and was tie-dyed.

      Fine with me if they want to expose themselves, but how dumb are they? It's like a bad reality TV show (with sadly real-world consequences).

  • CBS stands by Bob Simon, blowing off CAMERA's charges of anti-Semitism
  • Wolf Blitzer looks for a religious state
    • Pamela Olson May 23, 2013 at 8:01 pm

      Yup, fishing for his Okie soundbite. Guess what, dumbass? We're not all the same. K? Even in my small home town, some of my best friends were atheists. (Some of them closet atheists, but still.)

      Even if she did thank the Lord -- that's a personal thing, not a box to check on your "pre-conceived ideas" list. Let the woman speak her own mind, will ya? You might learn something.

  • Biden says Jewish 'influence' behind American cultural politics is 'immense... immense'
    • Pamela Olson May 23, 2013 at 2:48 pm with 4 replies

      People of Jewish descent, culture, and/or religion have done, discovered, and written about tremendously influential things in the area of science and culture -- pretty far outsized for their relatively small numbers. I don't think there's any controversy about this.

      The Greeks can be thought of similarly, though they've somewhat fallen off the Western science and culture radar in recent centuries.

      None of it gives anyone a "right" to violate international law, discriminate against others, or deny basic human rights to anyone.

    • Pamela Olson May 22, 2013 at 1:15 pm with 6 replies

      As a lover of science, and especially physics, I grew up with Jewish heroes. It was staggering to me, for example, how many of the "founding fathers" of chaos theory were Jewish -- and in fact, how many were Holocaust survivors. When I read that, it brought the Holocaust home in a whole new way. How many scientific theories were lost in those chambers?

      Credit where credit is due -- Jewish influence on science and culture is staggering, and I, for one, am immensely grateful for it.

      But when assholes who didn't invent a damn thing use that sparkling history to justify ethnic cleansing, oppression, and killing, it makes my blood boil all the hotter because it disrespects all the fine Jewish people I grew up admiring.

  • Video: Paterson, NJ raises the Palestinian flag over city hall for Palestinian-American Day
    • Pamela Olson May 22, 2013 at 11:26 am

      Quick correction: the actual location of the event was in San Jose (not Santa Clara), which is the seat of the County of Santa Clara Government Center. (I managed to confuse the city of Santa Clara and the county of Santa Clara.) And it did have some coverage over the years:

      2011: link to examiner.com

      2010: link to sccgov.org

      2009: link to indybay.org

      2008: link to indybay.org

      2007: link to indybay.org

    • Pamela Olson May 22, 2013 at 2:10 am with 1 replies

      Actually, there's good news -- this isn't the first. Something similar was done in Santa Clara, California just a few days ago! I was a speaker at the Palestinian Cultural Day event, and the Palestinian flag was raised at the County of Santa Clara Government Center. It's apparently been done for the past ten years.

      I think it's just not covered much by the press, partly because I think the organizers fear a backlash if the event becomes too widely known and reported on...

  • Both Massad, and 'Open Zion', ignore the experience of Middle Eastern Jews
    • Pamela Olson May 21, 2013 at 4:18 pm

      Thanks for this commentary -- it is badly needed. The Sephardic voice does tend to be drowned out in this discourse and overshadowed by the European Jewish powers that dominate in Israel.

      My understanding is that Sephardic citizens are often intimidated into silence, or even into denying or downplaying their Arabic heritage, in Israel (not to mention economically marginalized) -- correct me if I'm wrong. Do many of those organizations you mentioned feel that aligning with the Ashkenazim is simply their best economic bet?

      Anyway, I have lots of (probably naive) questions, so I'm glad this subject is being broached. I hope it will continue.

  • Widely denounced as 'propaganda,' Israel's report on al-Dura calls attention to 950 other child killings
    • Pamela Olson May 21, 2013 at 4:33 pm

      That's always an interesting question, Castellio -- who are the shameless manipulators, careerists, and opportunists, and who are the true believers?

      Is there really a clear line between one and the other?

      I didn't see a very clear line when I was working in Washington. It was genuinely creepy how people could more or less convince themselves of anything if not doing so hurt their social or financial standing. They simply chose which evidence to see and which evidence to ignore (and our bought-and-paid-for press made it extremely easy).

      Then again, who really knows what goes on inside any given human head?

      George Packer said something really interesting on The Daily Show the other day. He was studying Newt Gingrich's (disastrous) effect on politics in America, but he didn't want to interview Newt because he didn't want to get to know him as a person. He wanted to purely study what had been the (apparent) causes and effects of Newt's actions and ideology.

      It was fascinating to me to think that getting to know Newt might have thrown all that off -- might have caused him to empathize with Newt as a father, breakfast eater, joke-maker, and all around bag of flesh and bones like the rest of us, and therefore compromised his ability to do stone-cold analysis of the man.

      Journalists have indeed spoken about meeting mass murderers like Milosevic and starting to understand "their side" just a bit better. The racism of some members of my family helps me emphatize with racists.

      At the end of the day, we are all human. You just can't get around that. But innocent people still suffer because of the way these people behave.

      It's not simple to know what to do in the face of all of it.

      I have to admit, I even find myself sometimes, while reading hasbara, nodding along as if it makes sense. Then I shake my head and remind myself of the other 85% of the story they're not telling.

      Many people don't have that 85% (or more) to help pull them out of the morass, because they're not looking there, because they're convinced it's nothing more than a plot to undermine their safety.

      There's some real mental gymnastics going on here. It's all a very complex and fascinating and maddening thing to try to understand.

    • Pamela Olson May 21, 2013 at 12:27 pm with 9 replies

      They have to engage in this kind of shameless projection -- otherwise they might face the uncomfortable squirming of actually looking in the mirror and realizing what they've done (and perhaps even dismantling large structures of belief and ideology built on shaky foundations of a whitewashed, chauvinistic, and very selective understanding of reality).

      It's some of the most breathtaking denial I've ever seen. A fascinating case study in how far the human mind can go to try to cover up its own misdeeds, in its own mind. Their axiomatic belief is that the world is out to get them, and they're the good guys. Therefore anything that contradicts that belief must be wrong.

      All reasonable evidence must be denied if one shred of doubt can be cast. And they specialize in casting doubt, magnifying that 2% of wiggle room and ignoring the 98% of history, evidence, and common sense that most sensible people are paying attention to.

  • Mohammed Assaf, singing sensation out of Gaza refugee camp, torches Arab Idol competition
    • Pamela Olson May 20, 2013 at 2:00 pm

      Goosebumps. Wallah he's a natural -- singer and performer.

      How much more could Palestinians be doing if they weren't constantly forced to jump fences just for the ordinary opportunities of life?

  • Birthright guide turned US youths' eyes away from refugee camps, settlements
  • Video: Soldiers aim guns at fallen boy's head outside West Bank settlement
    • Pamela Olson May 19, 2013 at 2:30 pm with 1 replies

      Once in 2009, as my bus was pulling away from the Qalandia checkpoint, I happened to look out my window and see a young Palestinian man with a keffiya wrapped around his head against the cold. Then my window framed an Israeli soldier who casually raised his gun until it was pointing at the Palestinian guy’s head. The soldier pantomimed pulling the trigger and feeling the kick as he shot the young man in the head. The Palestinian guy was walking away and didn’t see the soldier pretend to kill him, but another soldier did and chuckled.

      That was my last view of the occupation on that particular visit: a joke about cold-blooded murder, in broad daylight, with the approval of his peer.

  • Boston Globe's groundbreaking salute to BDS will bring 'fierce criticism,' US Campaign says
  • Glenn Greenwald brings facts and reason to 'Real Time', ruins Bill Maher's night
  • Israeli right-wing flys off the deep end following Hawking boycott
    • Pamela Olson May 10, 2013 at 12:29 am

      Henry, tell us the story if you can of how that excellent column ended your career in tech journalism. I'm collecting these types of stories -- data points -- to shore up my next book, "Palestine, DC." (I don't have to tell your precise story in the book, but the more stories I have in my head, the better it is for me, if that makes sense.)

  • One-woman wrecking crew of Jewish community's image, Geller brings her show to Toronto
    • Pamela Olson May 10, 2013 at 12:37 am

      I've said it 8 million times, and I'll say it again. I denounce bigotry in any form. But I denounce it more forcefully when it comes from people who either claim to represent me (government or public figures in my own country) or take my tax dollars and use it to violate human rights (or support people who violate human rights using my tax dollars).

      In other words, I take responsibility for what I'm responsible for, rather than just pointing fingers every which way.

      It reminds me of a quote from the New Testament: "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."

      I hope some day you'll finally take a long look in the mirror.

    • Pamela Olson May 8, 2013 at 4:14 pm with 4 replies

      Isn't the JDL a terrorist organization?

      I like the idea of all these people coming out of the woodwork to identify themselves. I hope people take pictures, and show the pictures in ten or twenty years when such things are utterly beyond the pale, to show where these "respectable" members of the community were back in the day. I hope they live to feel ashamed of their fierce hatred of something they don't understand, and don't bother to try.

  • 'The policy of the present Israeli government is likely to lead to disaster': Stephen Hawking pulls out of conference hosted by Shimon Peres, backs academic boycott of Israel (Updated)
    • Pamela Olson May 10, 2013 at 12:39 am

      Busted! :D (Nice one, tree)

      Yeah, if this was a one-off event, that's one thing. But it happens really hilariously sadly often. The people speak, and the institutions get embarrassed and try to pretend like there's nothing to see here. It's pathetic.

    • Pamela Olson May 8, 2013 at 4:06 pm with 5 replies

      It's funny how every time there's a successful boycott or divestment initiative, the higher-ups immediately start in with, "Oh, it's just a coincidence that we're divesting from these companies (or whatever), nothing to do with Israel!"

      A transparent placating lie. No one is fooled.

  • Shared values?
    • Pamela Olson May 7, 2013 at 10:50 pm

      Hm... this all sounds like Dennis Ross subconsciously wishing he didn't exist and acting out on it in a most peculiar way (by trying to pre-emptively destroy all people conceived in a similar way)... Very strange indeed...

  • Oberlin College Student Senate votes to support divestment from companies profiting from Israeli occupation
    • Pamela Olson May 7, 2013 at 9:24 pm

      "It has been endorsed by Oberlin’s Responsible Investing Organization, Student Labor Action Coalition, Mexican American Students Association, La Alianza Latina, South Asian Students Association, Oberlin Queer Wellness Coalition, Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People, and Multicultural Resource Center."

      WOW. That is some serious coalition building!

  • Potemkin Village in NY: Dersh and Beinart hold second debate over whether Zionism is in crisis
    • Pamela Olson April 30, 2013 at 4:20 pm

      “Peter naively believes that if Israel resolves its problems with the Palestinians, the threat that Israel faces will go away,” said Dershowitz, to the audience at the Perspectives: Conversations on Policy and Place with Peter Beinart series at the Graduate Center. “But they won’t —- the problem is that the vast majority of Muslims don’t see the two-state solution as the answer.”

      So what the hell is YOUR solution, genius?

  • Shulman moves from 'Israel in peril' to no possibility of a two-state solution
    • Pamela Olson April 30, 2013 at 4:17 pm

      Currently it's not up to "the Palestinians." It's up to the quislings who have no real power other than prostrating themselves and hoping for crumbs (and a nice car and plenty of cash and VIP checkpoints along the way). Any time they defy the people with real power, they get their legs chopped out from under them. (See: UNGA vote on statehood.)

      Fayyad finally fled the sinking ship. What will happen next, I wonder?

  • Send in the clowns
    • Pamela Olson April 27, 2013 at 11:16 pm

      Yes... one cringes on their behalf... it's incredibly embarrassing. I wonder if they will ever understand how embarrassing they are.

      If a tree humiliates himself in a forest and no one ever calls him on it, was he really humiliated?

  • Israeli attorney general affirms policy of e-mail searches of foreign travelers
    • Pamela Olson April 27, 2013 at 6:08 pm

      Yes, I did. So? Do you wish I had been caught in the dragnet, too?

      They did, in fact, successfully "convince" me to "voluntarily" deport myself. I moved away in the end because I couldn't take the disgusting treatment -- and constant threat of deportation -- at the border anymore.

      I know people who likewise couldn't handle it and never went back (people with any Arabic in their names or features get MUCH WORSE treatment, and believe me, the things I hear about have nothing to do with security and everything about humiliation), and others who bravely soldier on month after month, submitting to these horrors for nothing more than the ability to live in their home, the land of their ancestors (and often of their birth).

      The Israeli process isn't a 100% rejection machine. But it is a misery machine you can probably barely imagine, and the rejection -- both compulsory and "voluntary" -- is enough to negatively affect and disrupt countless innocent lives.

      What next snarky thing would you like to say?

    • Pamela Olson April 24, 2013 at 5:48 pm with 4 replies

      They read all the text messages on my phone and my entire day planner one time. I wanted to scream. If I had taken my journal through, and they had read that, I don't think I would have been able to handle it. Far more invasive than a full body cavity search.

      When they asked me for email information, I just told them I forgot the password. They didn't deport me. Then again, I'm not Arab.

      It's an amazingly vile business.

  • 'Fast Times in Palestine' offers a glimpse of what has been, what is, and what could be
    • Pamela Olson April 26, 2013 at 10:52 am with 2 replies

      "As long as they don’t sing, of course."

      Once you know a bit of the language, the experience becomes totally different. And no one can tell me Amr Diab and Nancy Ajram don't have gorgeous voices (even if some of their songs are a bit silly, as pop songs tend to be).

      Coming back to American clubs after dancing in the Middle East was a huge let-down, though! Gosh, our music is so vapid and not even all that danceable (imho).

    • Pamela Olson April 24, 2013 at 3:52 pm

      Last I checked, you could find it at the Educational Book Shop on Salah ad-Din St in East Jerusalem, and at the American Colony Book Shop. Might want to call ahead, though, as it's probably not fast or easy having them shipped from the publisher if they run out. There's also a Kindle version.

      Feel free to get in touch if you have any problems getting hold of it -- pamolson @ gmail

      And thanks for the kind write-up, Jerry :)

  • Jewish Federations mount campaign against Berkeley divestment measure as 'alienating and hateful'
    • Pamela Olson April 23, 2013 at 11:28 pm with 1 replies

      "It is clear that this bill is using the guise of human rights to unfairly assign blame and tarnish the reputation of Israel, a world-leader in technology and innovation."

      Now somebody's just vomiting random unrelated talking points...

  • Chris Matthews suggests that Boston suspects are Arabs
  • Which lobby is more powerful?
  • Extremists & traitors
  • 10 takeaways from the Boston University Right of Return conference
  • Palestinian-American boy, 14, locked up in Israeli military jail
    • Pamela Olson April 12, 2013 at 2:33 am

      Very often when children are arrested for throwing stones, they've done absolutely nothing of the sort. The Israeli army routinely picks people up for absolutely no reason whatsoever. As my roomate from Gaza used to say, "There is no reason. They just do this to humiliate us."

  • Forget SodaStream, help Palestinian workers by boycotting settlements and ending the occupation
    • Pamela Olson April 10, 2013 at 9:15 pm

      Should be open to the public. Glad to see you at either event!

    • Pamela Olson April 10, 2013 at 6:47 pm with 2 replies

      Thanks, Alfa. The weather was a bit nuts on Tuesday, but luckily we still had a full house! Most of my audiences have been thoughtful and generally awesome, but every now and then I'll hear an ignorant comment like this, and it'll put my hackles up. I was glad to find this article that laid it all out so calmly and clearly.

      I'd love to go to the Colorado BDS conference, but I've been invited to hike with some amigos in Boulder on Saturday. It's pretty hard to pass up -- book touring is way more intense than I expected, and a day to unwind would be great. But the BDS conference sounds great, too. I guess I'll play it by ear.

      See you in Boulder in any case!

  • NY synagogue's invitation to Geller to 'promote bigotry' elicits call to cancel event
    • Pamela Olson April 6, 2013 at 1:13 pm

      There's some argument to be made here for revealing these people for who and what they are. But allowing them to speak at respected community venues when their position is utterly illegitimate gives them a cache they don't deserve.

      Canceling the event might make Islamophobes foam at the mouth, but allowing her to speak at legitimate venues (I would imagine) makes Islamophobes sit back with a satisfied expression on their face that their hateful views are tolerated and even encouraged by "polite society."

    • Pamela Olson April 6, 2013 at 1:09 pm

      Amen! Calling out hate speech is a TOTALLY different universe from silencing legitimate dissent based on universal values. At the same time we defend ourselves from being called hateful and bigoted with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, we must continue to call out people who are genuinely hateful and bigoted. Comparing ourselves to them is demeaning and frankly ridiculous.

      Keep that starch in your spine, and carry on. Don't buy into their absurd and false equivalencies.

  • Talk about a tough neighborhood! 'UWS' prepares for revelry on Israel's birthday
    • Pamela Olson April 6, 2013 at 1:04 pm

      Interesting. I'll be doing a reading of Fast Times in Palestine at the UWS Barnes & Noble on April 24. Maybe I'll get my first tough crowd?

      Wednesday, April 24, 7pm
      Barnes & Noble, Upper West Side
      2289 Broadway

      I'm just leaving Seattle now after a fantastic week of interviews and events -- people have been very supportive so far, and I'm looking forward to more "challenging" crowds as time goes on (and hopefully the reach of the book gets a little longer...)

      On to Denver, Boulder, and OKC in the next couple of weeks, then (finally) back to the east coast!

  • Rawan Yaghi heads to Oxford
    • Pamela Olson April 6, 2013 at 1:55 pm

      Hooray for Rawan! Oxford is lucky to have such a dynamo... Wow, so much respect, I'm excited to follow this young woman's life and path in the future, it makes me feel good about humanity. :)

  • Just another Shin Bet interrogation
  • Israel Project 'makeover' shows how U.S. stands between Israel and total isolation
    • Pamela Olson April 6, 2013 at 3:05 pm

      Well, I tried to write a book about Palestine that would appeal to mainstream Americans and the general human fascination with romance, adventure, suspense, and humor. We'll see how many people it can reach, and how many minds it can change... We just gotta keep chipping away. Luckily truth is generally a one-way valve. What is once glimpsed cannot be unseen (at least not without painful cognitive dissonance).

  • For Brookings talk on Arab women-- no Arab women!
    • Pamela Olson April 1, 2013 at 9:24 pm

      I met Tamara Cofman Wittes when I was working in Washington, when she was head of the Palestine section of Brookings. I assumed, naively, that since she was head of the PALESTINE section, she would be at least part Palestinian. Silly me.

      Turned out she was Jewish American and had studied at Tel Aviv University. Nothing wrong with that, but when I spoke with her, it was clear she was in the usual Washington vein: Talk pretty about two states, roll your eyes about the fact that nothing good is happening (be sure to be balanced and blame both sides!), and carry on drawing a nice prestigious paycheck.

      And 'round and 'round it goes.

  • Another bad review: 'Obama takes Palestinians for granted'
    • Pamela Olson March 28, 2013 at 8:51 pm with 1 replies

      "half of my stories come from folks who don't want to be identified, lest their careers are affected"

      Sigh. And yet when I try to explain this to people, I sound like a conspiracy theorist... less and less as time goes on, though.

  • New York screening for Fida Qishta doc'y on Gaza, 'Where Should the Birds Fly?'
    • Pamela Olson March 31, 2013 at 11:16 pm with 3 replies

      Apologies for the late reply, I didn't see this until now. Things are going great on the tour so far. Good audiences, steady sales, and no push-back except for one idiot who said during the Q&A, "The Israelis own the land now, so what's the problem? There's plenty of land in the rest of the Arab world." I informed him there was plenty of land in Idaho, and he was welcome to relocate there if someone else desired his home.

      And an interviewer who asked me, "So, do you think the Palestinians will ever be willing to negotiation a two-state solution?" LOL. Where do you even start with that? I talked a bit about the Arab Peace Initiative, which was apparently news to him, then the interview was over.

      Otherwise everything has been terrific. Five years ago I don't think this would have been nearly as well received. Here's hoping the trend continues.

    • Pamela Olson March 22, 2013 at 2:00 pm with 5 replies

      Everyone go see it if you can! She is amazing and has worked incredibly hard to get this great film out in the world. A true voice from Gaza.

  • Schoolboy's campaign to besmirch an eminent professor smacks of totalitarian society
    • Pamela Olson March 17, 2013 at 2:39 pm with 3 replies

      The parent of a student at a high school where I spoke recently must have googled me, because he found out my fiance was named Ahmed and complained to the school that my fiance was Palestinian and I must have some kind of anti-Jewish agenda. (My fiance is, in fact, Turkish, not that it should matter.)

      Five years ago, this probably would have gotten me simply dis-invited. But the principal spoke to the organizer, who spoke to me, and I said, "Well..." and filled them in on what I thought, and they both said, "OK, we did our due diligence." And that was that. I spoke and had a wonderful time.

      Progress!

  • Pamela Olson starts book tour of Palestine memoir in CA
    • Pamela Olson March 17, 2013 at 10:47 pm

      Hi Peter,

      At last, we have a time and venue for the Berkeley event. A two-day publicity blitz will follow. Wish us luck. (All other events are going much more smoothly... but these kinds of unfortunate blips do happen.)

      Tuesday, March 19, 8pm
      UC Berkeley
      Boalt Hall School of Law, Room 295
      (Please enter through the courtyard entrance near the entrance to Simon Hall)

      Hope to see you there! And/or in SF! :)

    • Pamela Olson March 17, 2013 at 6:00 pm

      Thanks, ritzl. My schedule for the spring is already packed, though (and then some). My last book tour event will be May 16 (back in California), and my wedding is on June 1. Trying not to faint just thinking about that... But yeah, STL and Nashville are high on the list for the fall!

    • Pamela Olson March 17, 2013 at 1:35 pm

      Hi Irish,

      I would have loved to go to LA, and might still -- the only problem was a lack of time. I had to choose whether to go north or south after the Bay Area, and I had better contacts in Seattle and Portland.

      Here's a blog post I wrote about the process of organizing the tour, in case anyone's interested: link to shewrites.com

    • Pamela Olson March 17, 2013 at 1:34 pm

      Hi Peter. I am well aware of the TBD on the Berkeley event. There was some miscommunication between the organizers, but they're working on it. I hope it doesn't end up being canceled. That would be quite unfortunate, as I could have arranged a talk at a local bookstore instead. Right now we're aiming for an 8pm talk on the campus somewhere. I will update the schedule on the website you mentioned as soon as humanly possible.

      Either way, the launch party will be just across the bridge in SF on Thursday, and I'd be glad to see you there!

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