the cherpas

brooklyn-based band the shondes describe themselves as follows:

We are, in a word, Shondes: as queers and trannies, radical activists, three
anti-occupation Jews and a Shiksa, we're shondes to the communties we come
from, and make passionate and political music to say that we're proud to be a
shonde! Our sound is driving and dramatic Rock music, with heavy Classical
influences; imagine Yiddishe spawn of Patti Smith, R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, and
Bach. With drums, bass, guitar, violin, and intertwining vocal melodies, all
instruments are foregrounded in the style of a classical quartet but coalesce
like a rock band to make a fresh and unexpected sound.

sounds good to me. the shondes are playing "chametz rock - a radical jewish passover" on april 15.

pappe on peretz

"The illusion won't last: all those Israelis who, at great risk to their lives, protest against the apartheid wall, who monitor the roadblocks, who refuse to serve in the army of occupation but instead do everything they can to help the Palestinians living under the yoke of occupation, need a change more significant than any Amir Peretz will bring. And so do the Palestinians, who have not only endured one of the longest and harshest occupations of modern times but have suffered false promises of liberation whenever a leader supposedly committed to peace has emerged in Israel only to show himself committed to Zionism in such a way as to preclude any meaningful chance of solving the conflict."

israel evacuates legal palestinian outpost, leaves hundreds of illegal israeli ones

an article in haaretz describes how a legal "outpost" - really a caravan - created by palestinian residents of bil'in and a group of peace activists was dismantled. the outpost is located right near hundreds of illegal houses in modiin ilit (upper modiin), an israeli colony. as attorney michael sfard pointed out in a legal challenge to the colony, the occupation authorities should have to explain to the court why the double standard exists.

it's obvious, of course, why the double standard exists - because israel is an apartheid state. but what will the lawyers for israel's government argue?

palestine solidarity conference at georgetown

FIFTH ANNUAL NATIONAL STUDENT CONFERENCE OF THE PALESTINE SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT

FEBRUARY 17-19, 2006

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

The Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM) announces that its fifth annual conference will be held February 17th through 19th at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The annual conference comes to Georgetown’s campus, which possesses a Catholic and Jesuit identity, on the heels of a series of bold initiatives taken by the decision-making bodies of various Christian denominations to consider the use of divestment as a tactic to non-violently influence a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The event will be hosted by Georgetown University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (GU-SJP) on behalf of PSM, a coalition of North American organizations dedicated to implementing divestment and boycott strategies as a component of human rights activism in order to realize both equality and justice for all people residing within Israel/Palestine.

palestinian refugee camps web site

ASWAT - palestinian lesbian group

a worthy cause

- jazzman

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Happy New Year from ASWAT

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We at ASWAT wish you a happy new year, a year of liberation, tolerance and acceptance, a year of political activism and love acts, a year of resonating voices and celebrated diversity, a year of sisterhood and cooperation. No more fear, no more occupation, no more oppression, exclusion or racism.

We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that ASWAT's radical voice, vision and ultimately activism is supported by the generosity of funds and individuals. Finding partners that would not hesitate to affiliate with our values is not an easy task. By supporting us, you allow us the autonomy to act against homophobia, occupation and patriarchal values. Your support in us is vital to the continuation of our work.

Support our effort!

Donate directly
Checks may be sent by mail to ASWAT- Kayan or through bank transfer to
The First International Bank of Israel (Bank Ben Leumi Harishon)
20 Hertzel St. Haifa, Israel
Account Number: 00-409-835757

Donor advised tax deducible donation, for Kayan-Feminist Organization-ASWAT, can be made via:
New Israel Fund-
UK: 26 Enford Street London W1H2DD
USA: POB 91588 Washington Dc 20090-1588 USA
Switzerland: PO. Box 425, CH-4010 Basel

ASWAT- Palestinian Gay Women
118 Arlozorov St., Haifa 33276
Tel: +972- 4- 866-2357
Fax: +972-4-864-1072

Sincerely Yours,

Aswat-Palestinian Gay Women
www.aswatgroup.org

bertrand russell on palestinian refugees

"The tragedy of the people of Palestine is that their country was "given" by a foreign power to another people for the creation of a new state. The result was that many hundreds of thousands of innocent people were made permanently homeless. With every new conflict their numbers increased. How much longer is the world willing to endure this spectacle of wanton cruelty? It is abundantly clear that the refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict. No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? A permanent just settlement of the refugees in their homeland is an essential ingredient of any genuine settlement in the Middle East".

"Message from Bertrand Russell to the International Conference of Parliamentarians in Cairo, February 1970." Reprinted in The New York Times, Feb. 23, 1970.

updates on the norman finkelstein site

there's new material on norman finkelstein's website. most of is is dershowitz-bashing (which, with dershowitz in "panic mode" as finkelstein puts it, is not much of a sport) by norman and by alexander cockburn, but there's also an excerpt from finkelstein's forthcoming memoir (is he old enough to be allowed to write a memoir?).

one bit of news from the cockburn article: michael neumann will be publishing a book, "the case against israel", with counterpunch.