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What Is, and Isn’t, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement
By Emily Schaeffer The call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel is gaining momentum. At the same time, it is widely misinterpreted, unfortunately by skeptics, opponents and proponents alike.The basic premise behind BDS movements initiated by civil society is that they are a grassroots, international, non-violent means of expressing stern disapproval of a country’s choice to oppress or discriminate against a group of people in contravention of international law and principles of equality, humanity … Read entire article »
Featured
What Is, and Isn’t, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement
By Emily Schaeffer The call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel is gaining momentum. At the … Read more »
A Lost Decade in Israel-Palestine: Diary Series Kickoff
This diary opens a collaborative effort to profile the past decade in the life of Israel-Palestine. A Lost Decade in all respects. Far worse than Japan’s “Lost Decade.” Unfortunately, the events that set … Read more »
The mathematics of strangulation of Gaza
By Jesse Bacon When the specifics of Israel’s siege of Gaza came to light, it appeared almost random … Read more »
On the Ground Reports
Budrus hero calls for Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s freedom
By Jesse Bacon I recently had the good fortune to attend a packed Monday night NYC screening sponsored … Read more »
Hebrew Lessons at the Learning and Creativity Center in Susiya
Guest Post – Yael Arbel “You must come to see Susiya.” In all truth, I am fascinated by the … Read more »
Premiere of a Film Documenting Relationships between Israelis and the People of Palestinian Susiya
Tuesday, September 28th, brought us at the Villages Group great satisfaction. On that day, we and many … Read more »
Latest
Meir Kahane (of unblessed memory) Comic Strip Hero
By Jesse Bacon Ma’an News reported last week on a comic book honoring Meir Kahane, the slain Jewish fascist leader whose politics were even too much for the Israeli Supreme Court. His party remains banned. Reading the comic strip, a few things become clear. First of all, the artistic quality is incredibly poor. If only the Middle East conflict could be … Read entire article »
A Lost Decade in Israel-Palestine: Diary Series Kickoff
This diary opens a collaborative effort to profile the past decade in the life of Israel-Palestine. A Lost Decade in all respects. Far worse than Japan’s “Lost Decade.” Unfortunately, the events that set this decade onto its lamentable trajectory happened shortly before the advent of the blogosphere. Therefore, in living blogo-memory, it has always been like this: a partisan tit-for-tat between “I”s and “P”s, accompanied by bigotry and shrill name-calling, and a sense of helpless circularity – or rather, of gradually spiraling down. But it wasn’t always like that. And the current reality in Israel-Palestine is neither normal nor inevitable. Ten years ago, I had no idea that activism would become such a big part of … Read entire article »
Budrus hero calls for Abdallah Abu Rahmah’s freedom
By Jesse Bacon I recently had the good fortune to attend a packed Monday night NYC screening sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. One issue raised by the extremely well-informed director was how similar protests in other villages have had difficulty duplicating Budrus’s success. A Budrus protest participant told me that even Budrus itself could … Read entire article »
Terry Fletcher responds to Audrey Farber’s post on Palestinian democracy
In her recent post A true Democracy; if Israel would only let it, Audrey Farber paints a very rosy picture of Palestinian democracy, both present and future. Other commentators and human rights organizations paint a quite different picture, at least of the present. In this New York Review of Books article, Nathan Thrall asserts, A year into Fayyad’s first term, Mamdouh al-Aker, then head of the PA’s human rights organization, spoke of the government’s “militarization” and asserted that “a state of lawlessness had shifted to a sort of a security state, a police state.” Charges of authoritarianism have intensified since. Abbas, whose term expired during the war in Gaza, has been ruling by presidential decree. There has … Read entire article »
Hebrew Lessons at the Learning and Creativity Center in Susiya
Guest Post – Yael Arbel “You must come to see Susiya.” In all truth, I am fascinated by the stories I hear about Susya. I have not been there since the cold, muddy winter of 2002, when we trekked with Ta’ayush activists to bring blankets for those living there, only to be detained by the army. I don’t think I even got … Read entire article »