Heated Facebook discussions often end badly, sometimes involving a Hitler comparison or two. Recently I had one that ended surprisingly well, with all the parties friending each other. But it was quite heated nonetheless. The subject was some recent comments by Norman Finkelstein. read more
Our Articles
January 13th, 2010 - 1:39 pm § by tom § in Uncategorized
Privileged Pessimism: On the Israeli Mainstream
Contrary to popular belief, Marx never used the term “false consciousness”. He assumed that what prevented the disadvantaged from revolting was usually the “dull compulsion of economic relations” – the simple need to make a living (quoted in Scott’s fascinating Domination and the Arts [...]
January 8th, 2010 - 5:01 pm § by tom § in Uncategorized
The Israeli Experience Mystique
Here we go again: a Jewish American friend of mine posted a critique of Israeli policy in Gaza on her Facebook profile. Immediately, she got bullied: “I’m there right now and it’s very easy to post things on your facebook without having any first hand encounters. Rather than copyin[...]
Imagining Return
Dedicated to my comrades in Students for Justice in Palestine I should have taken your email! People were all around us at the rally, shouting and singing, I really wanted to talk to someone but I didn’t notice how well you were listening, how you had patience to talk to me and read t[...]
Turning Banners Into Flags: Thoughts from Palestine/Israel on Solidarity and Exclusion
This post comes to us from our activist friend Lior Hadar, who is currently in Israel/Palestine doing justice work with different organizations and groups. In this post he reflects on the borders people place on themselves, from the UC colleges to Israel/Palestine. A man once walked into a Black Lau[...]
Learning About 1948
I remember when I bought my first copy of Benny Morris’ book on the Birth of the Refugee Problem. It was book-week in Rabin Square, Tel Aviv, over ten years ago, all lit up and bustling with crowds of people. I didn’t know what to expect: a part of me didn’t want to know, really [.[...]
Bookmarks
39 army raids, 28 arrests: Just another day in the West Bank – Haaretz – Israel News
“The year 2009 was the quietest for Israelis from the security point of view and the most violent for the Palestinians from the point of view of attacks by settlers in the West Bank.” Just as he was saying this – as an example of one of the absurdities that characterize the politic[...]
ei: Jerusalem families come out against museum built on ancestors’ graves
The lawyers for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Museum of Tolerance merely smiled, without replying. via ei: Jerusalem families come out against museum built on ancestors’ graves. [...]
ei: Harvard Fellow calls for genocidal measure to curb Palestinian births
The 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, created in the wake of the Nazi holocaust, defines genocide to include measures “intended to prevent births within” a specific “national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” via ei: Harvard Fell[...]
Jonathan Cook: Israel’s new ‘attack on freedom of speech’ | Israeli Occupation Archive
According to the legislation, human-rights groups will have to satisfy a long list of new conditions. They include: registering as political bodies; submitting ID numbers and addresses for all activists; providing detailed accounts of all donations from overseas and the purposes to which they will b[...]
Haaretz: A duty to protest | Israeli Occupation Archive
The protests in Bil’in are legitimate. They must be allowed. Protesters must be permitted unobstructed access to the site, and so should security forces, as long as they act with restraint. Shooting at demonstrators – as has happened in Bil’in all too often – is an act perpetrated by only th[...]
ei: “At least there’s food in prison!”
Between 15 and 20 settlers accompanied by more soldiers arrived. Mona’s husband tried to convince the soldiers to make the settlers leave the village. “We’ll go back into our houses if they leave,” he said. But then the settlers started throwing stones at a group of Palestini[...]
ei: Israel’s new strategy: “sabotage” and “attack” the global justice movement
What ties together all these strategies is that they are aimed at frustrating, delaying and distracting attention from the fundamental issue: that Israel — despite its claims to be a liberal and democratic state — is an ultranationalist ethnocracy that relies on the violent suppression o[...]
Nepal: Land of the Landless, Government of Non-Governments
In Hebrew, Nepal is still referred to as a “poor country,” but in English development practitioners have long ago adopted the much nicer sounding term “impoverished.” Progress seems to have come to the very discourse of progress itself. But in my bilingual program Tevel Be’Tzedek (The Eart[...]