Alicia Keys has announced that, despite protests, she is going forward with her upcoming show in Israel. Organizers are still collecting signatures on a petition asking Keys to cancel the performance.
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Monthly Archives: May 2013
Kerry and Blair’s $4 Billion Mystery Plan for Palestine: Crony capitalism under the guise of peace?
The recent World Economic Forum in Amman, Jordan, was billed as the Obama administration’s milestone moment for reviving the comatose US-led peace process. In a speech brimming with optimism, John Kerry introduced “Breaking The Impasse,” an ambitious initiative that promised to increase the Palestinian GDP by 50 percent. Details of the plan are impossible to come by, except that Tony Blair, the Special Envoy of the Quartet, had been placed in charge. Blair’s record of questionable wheeling and dealing raises serious questions about “Breaking The Impasse” – to the extent that it is a plan at all. Above, Kerry and Blair discussing the peace process in Rome, Italy, May 2013.
The Not-So-Complex World of Michael Bloomberg: When a white person does it, it’s not terrorism
Last week, a threatening letter laced with the deadly chemical ricin was sent from Shreveport, Louisiana to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a response to the mayor’s outspoken support for stricter gun control laws. Two identical letters, also containing the lethal substance, were addressed to both President Barack Obama and the head of the Washington D.C. lobbying group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which is managed and funded by Bloomberg himself. Despite lethally targeting civilians and non-military officials far from any active battlefield, no one is referring to these acts as terrorism. Not the press, not the intended victims. No one.
Is Israel ‘Funtown’?
Martin Luther King once had to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she wasn’t allowed to go to the Atlanta amusement park Funtown. Israel seems to following in Atlanta’s footsteps.
Updated: al-Aqsa Foundation discovers mass graves of Palestinians killed during the Nakba in Jaffa
During a restoration project repairing gravesites which had collapsed due to natural conditions at the Al-Kazakhana cemetery in Jaffa, workers for the al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, an NGO based in the city of Umm al-Fahm, discovered the existence of six mass graves with hundreds of skeletons of Palestinians who perished during the Nakba in 1948 and the uprising in 1936.
Visiting Hollywood, mayor sells Jerusalem as location– ‘good business, good Zionism’
Nir Barkat, mayor of Jerusalem, is working with Haim Saban, the Democratic Party leader, to make films in Jerusalem
The ‘double standards’ issue and moral judgment of Israeli policies
Jerry Slater writes: throughout most of its history Israel has been the beneficiary of double standards, as most Westerners ignored Israel’s long history of dispossession, occupation, and repression of the Palestinians–whether because of Holocaust guilt, genuine admiration of Israel and even of the Jewish people, domestic political factors, or foreign policy considerations.
‘Scoop Israel’ — Stand With Us markets propaganda with Waugh’s cachet
Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop was steeped in the racism of its time. Stand With Us, the pro-Israel group, appropriates the title for Israel propaganda
Fifty years apart, Arendt and Butler represent the flowering of the Jewish prophetic in our time
What a meaningful coincidence this week – the release of a new film on the ever controversial Hannah Arendt and the awarding of an honorary Doctorate to the newly controversial Judith Butler.
‘This time we were not forced to swim naked in the sea’: Gaza fishermen left jobless after illegal arrest in Palestinian waters
A young Palestinian fisherman was arrested together with his brother within Palestinian waters on May 19th by the Israeli navy and released the following day. Their boat and all equipment were confiscated by the Israelis, leaving them with no means to make a living. This is another serious blow to the livelihoods of individual Palestinians whose lives depend on fishing, not to mention the whole population, which has been for years subject to siege as collective punishment, illegal under international law. Above, the Israeli military harasses Palestinian fishermen off the coast of Gaza.
Fundraiser in NYC for ‘Palestinian House of Friendship’ to support creative approaches to non-violent resistance
Mohammed Sawalha will be visiting Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and New York, from May 23rd to June 10th raising funds for these vital programs for the children of Nablus. The American Friends of PHF is presenting a benefit event in Brooklyn on June 6, co-sponsored by the Brooklyn Ethical Society’s Action Committee and Brooklyn for Peace.
In confab over ‘Jewish democracy,’ Goldberg says the U.S. has plenty of ‘schmucks’ and ‘fascists’ too
Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit went on an extreme riff about the Arab Spring at a historic synagogue in Washington the other night — then stated that he spoke not as an Israeli Jewish Zionist but as a human being. Do you believe him? Peter Voskamp reports
At pricey Chicago fundraiser, Obama calls three leaders of J Street his ‘cabal’
Many of those who gave Obama his start in politics were Jewish. Last night at a fundraiser at the home of one of them, Obama called the gathering his old “cabal” — and he cited three members of J Street’s advisory council
Jim Crow amusement park in Israel features days for only Jewish students, days for only Palestinians
In the charm offensive that is the only democracy in the Middle East, an ISraeli amusement park has a frank segregation policy, different days for Palestinians and Jews
Sheldon Adelson’s trash talk of Palestinians (was parroted by Romney last year)
All Palestinians want to do is kill you and your people, Sheldon Adelson tells the New York Times. Romney echoed these statements a year ago. Remember that Adelson played an outsized role in US politics last year and no one quizzed him about this sort of prejudice
Roger Waters joins Alice Walker in plea to Alicia Keys not to play Israel
Roger Waters to Alicia Keys: ‘Others may try to persuade you that by playing in Israel you may magically effect some change… appeasement didn’t work with South Africa and it has not worked in Israel. I know I tried it ten years ago, things have only got worse.’
Conscientious objector Nathan Blanc outlasts the Israeli military, wins freedom
Nathan Blanc, the young imprisoned Israeli conscientious objector, was informed this morning (Thursday) that he will be freed and that the IDF will declare him “unsuitable for military service.”
Talking points for Secretary Kerry Re: New Jerusalem
The only way to end the endless wrangling in Israel/Palestine is through an American military intervention. Here are talking points for John Kerry on post-intervention thinking/planning.
The lost city of Gaza (Part 1)
Gaza is neither just a refugee camp nor a heap of cement as always portrayed in the media. On the contrary, Gaza is a historic city with a 5,000 years old history, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. So, if Gaza has this long history with all these past civilizations, why do we only see cement, cement, and more cement photos of Gaza? Where did the archeological and ancient face of Gaza go? Who is responsible for losing huge parts of the “old city of Gaza”?
Op-Ed: Sen. Schatz, the Israel visa waiver exemption bill promotes a process similar to Hawaii’s own history of colonization and exploitation
Kristen-Marie Puanani Young Ortiz has an Op-Ed in today’s Honolulu Star Advertiser asking Senator Brian Schatz to drop his support for the visa waiver exemption for Israel.
Alice Walker to Alicia Keys: Boycott, because Palestinian conditions are worse than they were in US South
Open letter from Alice Walker to Alicia Key: You are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists
Behind the story: A beating caught by settlers’ camera exposes violent encroachment on a village’s land
Palestinian Sami Issa of Deir Jareer says of neighboring settlement, Ofra, “We’re gathered today to say we refuse to be attacked and driven off our own land. We want their army to pull the settlers out.”
The Solyndra of Israel, adored by Tom Friedman and NPR, goes bellyup
The Israeli green car company Better Place was adored on NPR and by visionary Tom Friedman. Now it’s gone bellyup. How many of those media mavens will reflect on why they believed the hype?
J Street is no longer on outs with Netanyahu
Netanyahu allowed J Street delegation to meet with ministers, a reversal of earlier policy against the liberal Zionist organization. Both sides get something out of J Street serving as Netanyahu’s figleaf
New report shows Palestinians own only 8% of historic Palestine
Data shows that Palestinians now own just 8 per cent of historic Palestine MEMO 28 May — New data published by the Lands Research Centre (LRC) shows that Palestinians own only eight per cent of historic Palestine. The LRC is affiliated to the Arabic Studies Association in Jerusalem. In a press conference held in Ramallah, […]