Benjamin Doherty’s blog

Sinn Féin activists join with members of Belfast Friends of Palestine outside Belfast City Hall to support Palestinian Hunger Striker Khader Adnan as he enters his 63rd day on Hunger Strike.

A small group of writers, students, and activists (including myself) is collecting letters of support and solidarity for Khader Adnan and his family. All of these letters are published at http://khaderadnan.posterous.com/. After his ordeal is finished, these letters will be translated and presented to his family. You can contribute a letter simply by sending your letter by email to post@khaderadnan.posterous.com.

Today the Hebrew edition of Haaretz reports in a story about NGO Monitor that the organization hides details of its efforts to raise funds from US organizations. I have already collected some information about the sources of NGO Monitor’s income that I am sharing so bloggers and journalists can begin to do their own research into the network of funders behind this right-wing anti-Palestinian and pro-censorship organization.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu sends his greetings and support to the participants and organizers of the 2012 National BDS Conference at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tel Aviv is the world’s best gay travel destination according to a survey by the travel web site GayCities.com and American Airlines. This marketing coup was celebrated by the Government Press Office, various consulates and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it was reported in all the major Israeli newspapers.

Last June The Electronic Intifada exposed the identity of the person behind the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoax. The perpetrator was Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old American graduate student at the University of Edinburgh. After an surge of media attention, MacMaster disappeared from the public eye. The University of Edinburgh promised to investigate. But what happened, and was MacMaster ever held accountable for a hoax that many believe caused genuine harm? Documents released by the University of Edinburgh under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act, reveal that not only was MacMaster allowed to stay on as a student, but that the university sought as much as possible to gag him while never publishing any results of its investigation..

Video testimony from Amnon Neumann, a man who fought with the Palmach during the Nakba of 1948.

The One Democratic State Group in Gaza has issued this statement:

We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights.

Sarah Schulman’s New York Times op-ed Israel and ‘Pinkwashing’ outs Israel’s gay marketing plan that activists have termed “pinkwashing” and consistently sought to resist and expose.

In an Orwellian move, the Provost of the University of Chicago sent an email to the entire campus titled “Freedom of Expression” to announce the university’s intention to crack down on any protestors of tomorrow’s event with former Bush administration officials Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Provost Thomas Rosenbaum wrote: