Category: Palestine

A couple of weeks ago I discussed an event I attended at ‘Israel Apartheid Week’ at the University of Toronto.

One of the speakers at that event was Ilan Pappe, who I interviewed the following day. The interview is published on ZNet. Check it out.

Continue reading “Mechanisms of Denial”

http://www.zcommunications.org/mechanisms-of-denial-by-ilan-pappe

lan Pappe is a professor of History at Haifa University in Israel. He is an activist for Palestinian rights. He was in Toronto in February to give the keynote speech at ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ at the University of Toronto. He was interviewed by telephone on February 5, 2005.

Continue reading “Mechanisms of Denial: Interviewing Ilan Pappe”

There is still much going on between Colombia and Venezuela, but I’ll hold off reporting on what’s going on in the Colombian press on the topic until the meeting tomorrow between Colombian and Venezuelan officials, the first since the crisis flared up. It’s worth mentioning though that the FARC haven’t been silent on this. The ANNCOL site is always a source for the pro-FARC perspective, but beyond that the Colombian press is full of reports of attacks across the country in recent days. In a situation where propaganda is as important as the massacres themselves, anything that is said about what the FARC did or didn’t do in mainstream press should be taken with a heavy dose of salt. But there are reports of – attacks on helicopters, the bombing of a ranch owned by a governor, various landmine operations, and attacks on paramilitaries – all within the past week. Even if the crisis is between Colombia and Venezuela, it’s worth remembering that it was after all a FARC member who was kidnapped and the FARC could have been expected to react in the way that an armed organization does.

More on the predictable. A friend recently asked me for my 10-second assessment of what was going to happen in Israel/Palestine now that Abbas has been elected. I said roughly that since there are still Palestinians there, Israel will still be doing ethnic cleansing, and there will still be resistance. His prediction was different – he thinks Abbas will make such drastic concessions that Israel’s political scene will divide, with some wanting to accept the concessions and others wanting to keep to a strict ethnic cleansing policy. To bolster his point, he could point to the resumption of diplomatic ties between Israel and the PA or the upcoming ‘handover’ of 4 West Bank towns to the PA. I, on the other hand, could point to the three different killings today, one in Qalqilya, one of a baby in Dir-al-Balah, one east of Tubas, and the statement by Olmert that Israel has no plans to stop the killing.

Media will dutifully be reporting the deaths of five Israeli soldiers — though some media are calling them simply ‘Israelis’, not specifying that they are soldiers — in a Palestinian armed attack at a military checkpoint in Rafah.

Continue reading “Gaza explosion”

Palestine’s leader, Yasser Arafat, has died.

I expect that in the coming days there will be a lot of stupid things written about him on all sides. I have already read some of it. As when he was living, the point will not be to shower contempt on him and his legacy. It will be to shower contempt on the Palestinian people.

Continue reading “Arafat”

The nice thing for Israel about killing “top Hamas leaders” is 1) you get to kill someone, 2) no one will be upset because, after all, it was a “top Hamas leader”, and 3) after you’ve killed a “top Hamas leader”, there will be another one to take his place. Another thing not to worry about is who else was killed in addition to the “top Hamas leader”: the story that comes via the Associated Press says the bombing killed two people including Adnan al-Ghoul.

The Globe and Mail, where I read that story, has another story about how Canada is ’tilting’ towards Israel. Hard not to ’tilt’ towards a country so tough on terror.

You can read about the ongoing massacre at IMEMC.org. At the same site, there is a good analysis by Ghassan Andoni, one of the founders of the International Solidarity Movement and a columnist at IMEMC on the aims of this “Days of Penitence” operation. (For some analysis from the Israeli side, check Uri Avnery’s or Gideon Levy’s recent work. For some reporting, check out Rafah Today’s Mohammed Omer).

Andoni provides the simplest and most concise explanation of Sharon’s ‘strategy’, and it is the same ‘strategy’ Sharon has always used: commit shocking acts of violence against Palestinians, and the population and the United States will follow you. Quoting him:

Building on past experience, military attacks that result in massive bloodshed have always achieved an end to all initiatives introduced to reduce the level of violence and pave the way for diplomatic negotiations.

Such offensives have consistently triggered revenge attacks and have escalated the endless cycle of violence in the region.

Operation “Days of Penitence” has no doubt alienated the internationally backed Egyptian efforts to bring about a coordinated disengagement that could serve as a step towards implementing the road map peace initiative.

Dov Weisglass, one of Sharon’s top aides, explained it best in an interview in Ha’aretz, where he described the significance of Sharon’s “disengagement from Gaza plan”:

“The significance is the freezing of the political process. And when you freeze that process you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent a discussion about the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package that is called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed from our agenda indefinitely. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress. What more could have been anticipated? What more could have been given to the settlers?”

It is not just the Israeli army is killing a Palestinian every three hours, or that hundreds of children are in Israeli jails, or that virtually all the children in the territories are starving or on the verge of starving, or that houses and farms and livelihoods and lives are being systematically demolished. Beyond that, Israel and the US are very systematically working to ensure that there can be no decent peace at the end of this murderous, dirty “war”.

First thing: I want readers to know that even though I don’t spend much time blogging about Iraq, I don’t want readers to think that reflects what I think should be priorities. In fact I think Iraq is a major priority. I just think that two of my favourite blogs, Rahul’s and Zeynep’s , are staying on top of it quite effectively. If I think I can add anything, I will.

On Israel/Palestine. The offensive in Gaza continues. Israeli military shot and killed a 4 year old child there, according to IMEMC, and 12 others.

Read Ramzy Baroud in today’s Counterpunch for a thought experiment and a summary of what’s happened in this ‘Gaza raid’ so far.

And while this massacre goes on, the religious fundamentalists have invaded Israel and are trying to impose their agenda on that country.

Hamas, you ask? No, dear reader, I am talking about Pat Robertson. Today’s Haaretz quotes Pat, in Israel right now, said that if Bush were to “touch” Jerusalem, “Evangelicals would form a third party” (touch it, Bush! touch it please!)

Other constructive contributions from Pat include:

-Wanting to abolish the UN Relief and Works Agency (it perpetuates the refugee problem — which I suppose is true, since UNRWA is stopping all the refugees from starving to death, counter to Israel’s closure policies)

-Saying Arab nations “want a conflict” and “want the destruction of Israel” (so do the evangelicals, though I suppose they expect God will do it in His own time)

-“A Palestinian state with full sovereignty would be a launching ground for
various types of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction” (though how the WMD would get there from the US wasn’t explained)

-“I see the rise of Islam to destroy Israel and take the land from the Jews
and give East Jerusalem to [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Yasser Arafat.
I see that as Satan’s plan to prevent the return of Jesus Christ the
Lord,”

-“God says, ‘I’m going to judge those who carve up the West Bank and Gaza
Strip,'” Robertson said. “‘It’s my land and keep your hands off it.'”

I’m reminded of Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano’s quizzical remark before the US invaded Iraq last March: why is God giving Bush and the Pope such contradictory messages?

And why shouldn’t he? When “Operation Defensive Shield” happened in March/April 2002, there was at least the idea that while Powell meandered his way around the world, by the time he got to Israel Sharon would have to slow the massacre down. MSNBC says 58 have been killed in Gaza so far, around the same number cited for the Jenin slaughter in 2002. But Sharon has vowed to continue doggedly, as if this is some kind of act of courage, and not a slaughter of a an already starving population of refugees.