Israeli writers Isabel Kershner and Shmuel Rosner credited the Israeli government version of the al-Dura case in the New York Times. A French court says that version is bogus and defamatory
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Monthly Archives: June 2013
The Secretary of Pandering arrives in Israel, again
Where has Prime Minister Netanyahu been spending time preparing for the Secretary’s visit? In a West Bank settlement, Barkan, where he dedicated an elementary school named for his father who died last year. Speaking to the students, Netanyahu reflected on Jewish history before the state of Israel: “All sorts of bad things happened to the Jews. Why? Because they did not have a country. They did not have a land of their own, they did not have an army of their own. This is what my father saw. If you understand, remember it.”
Obama succumbs to rightwing ‘fearmongering’ — of Israel’s ‘delegitimization’
Gideon Levy says that the rightwing campaign to decry “delegitimization” of Israel is an effort to immunize it from criticism of occupation and its religious national constitution. But Obama has participated fullthroated in that campaign
Chicago synagogue culminates pinnacle Yom Kippur service with singing of Israeli anthem
A big Reform synagogue north of Chicago, B’nai Jeshoshua Beth Elohim, send an annual delegation to Israel lobby, AIPAC, and culminates the solemn Yom Kippur service with a singing of the Israeli national anthem
Yet another film about Palestinian suicide bombing (‘The Attack’)
Given how few feature films are made about Palestine, it is painful to see this fringe theme—isolated in time, within a certain context, and since abandoned—recycled over and over again, as if it somehow defines the Palestinian experience. — Pamela Olson on a cinematic treatment of suicide bombings
‘The people will meet the bulldozers with their bodies’: Plan to forcibly resettle 20,000-30,000 Bedouin passes first Knesset vote
Land, property, resources theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Restriction of movement Bedouin relocation plan wins slim Knesset majority after stormy 1st reading Haaretz 24 June by Yanir Yagna and Jonathan Lis — Plan which would see 20,000-30,000 Bedouin resettled in recognized towns has raised the ire of the local community, and prompted Arab […]
Leading American Jewish group announces plan to ramp up campaign against BDS movement
Malcolm Hoenlein (above), a top official with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told Haaretz this week that the campaign against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is about to ramp up. Hoenlein pledged that his organization will launch a “major Internet and social media campaign, in which we hope to reach every single college student in America.” The comments are an indication of just how much the movement to isolate Israel is shaking up the Jewish establishment.
9-year-old dies in Gaza, without fulfilling ‘human rights’ dream, to see imprisoned father
Tariq Assakani saw his father 6 years ago when he was 3. Never since. His father is in an Israeli prison and Tariq died in an accident yesterday
The Young and Palestinian
Ben-Gurion said the old Palestinians will die and the young will forget. No, they haven’t, says Lena Ibrahim
Exile and the prophetic: Israel’s (global) enablers
Israel has supplied Brazil with anti-riot equipment, and has apparently developed a rifle for use in urban settings
Syria’s faultlines extend into Lebanon and Palestine
New faultlines in the Syrian conflict: religious supporters of the Sunni rebels on the one side, and more secular/leftist political parties on the other. Few Palestinians – or secular Lebanese — express any fondness for the Assad regime, but increasingly they fear the consequences of victory by religious extremists in Syria.
‘J Street’ says Jewish state ‘hangs in balance’ of failed negotiations
J Street continues to warn that 2013 is make or break for the peace process. What happens when the year ends with no change in the occupation? Will J Street ever support democracy in Israel and occupied Palestine?
A dozen Palestinian children ‘on big adventure of their lives’ are balked when teacher is stopped from traveling
A sister organization linking Camden in London and Abu Dis in Jerusalem set up a two week trip to England for a dozen Palestinian children, 13-15. Then Israeli border authorities stopped their teacher
Border police raid Palestinian towns after residents protest wall that cuts them off from Jerusalem
Stories that don’t make it into English news: hundreds of Israeli border police raided cities across the West Bank, arresting at least 15.
Review: The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust
Noam Chayut’s recently translated memoir, “The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust,” is a rich, compelling read written by a left-wing activist. The book follows his trajectory from patriotic Israeli to activist in the anti-occupation group Shovrim Shtika (Breaking the Silence).
‘Times’ ad rebrands Israel as western country without occupation
More hasbara about Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in an ad in the New York Times
Zombie Hasbara: ‘World War Z’ and Hollywood’s Zionist embrace
Jesse Benjamin writes: “I went to the Drive-In in Atlanta Friday night, to celebrate a friend’s birthday. I’m not a zombie fanatic, so other than watching the Walking Dead, I had few expectations beyond the World War Z trailers that have been on TV since the Super Bowl. So I was surprised, jarred out of the movie really, when right in the middle of the narrative, Brad Pitt’s character, Gerry Lane, travels to Israel and spends more than 10 minutes in a full-on pro-Israel propaganda piece that was as corny as it was crazy.”
If non-white majority in US is ‘good news,’ why is Bill Clinton warning about ‘Palestinians having more babies’?
Statements that in the US would be considered racist are fine for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to utter in Israel. Warnings about a “demographic” threat that in the U.S. is seen as a great boon to our future
Update: Assaf in victory: ‘Today I represent Palestine and I’m fighting for a cause’
To grasp the impact Arab Idol award winner Mohammed Assaf is having globally, watch this CNN coverage of Assaf’s victory, thus far the best video of the moment. Assaf drops to his knees and prays while the audience goes wild. Later Assaf tells CNN: ‘The Palestinian people don’t love wars and killing and destruction’
Exile and the prophetic: Edward Snowden, on the run
Ecuador and Israel have a military partnership. Is Edward Snowden headed to Ecuador? The contradictions of life on the run
Invisible Man
Finance minister Yair Lapid is the great hope of liberal Zionists. He is said to represent a turn to the left in Israeli politics. Why then does he ignore demands by Palestinian members of Knesset?
‘Let’s go back to Gaza and give it a thorough cleaning’
From the rightwing Israeli news service Arutz Sheva. The unspeakable headline is theirs. Chairman Avigdor Lieberman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said, Monday morning, that there’s no choice but to consider reconquering Gaza. Interviewed on Kol Yisrael government radio following the launching of seven rockets at southern Israel, Sunday evening, the chairman […]
Palestinian children’s theater festival, featuring puppets and European troupes, is shut down in Jerusalem
Land, property theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing / Apartheid Israel blocks East Jerusalem children’s festival, citing link to Palestinian Authority Haaretz 24 June by Amira Hass — Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch has blocked a Palestinian children’s theater festival from opening in East Jerusalem this Saturday night on the claim that the event was […]
What Mohammed Assaf tells us about collective punishment and the one-state future
The future of a star: What if Mohammed Assaf were not representing an oppressed people, but singing for a nation that celebrates equal rights for Palestinians and Jews?
Theodor Meron’s ’67 memo provided legal rationale for settlements
Some portray Theodor Meron as a hero for his 1967 memo on the legality of the Israeli occupation. But he was in fact serving the settlement enterprise