what's new on Peacepalestine!

["mary" <humdrum2 at libero.it>]

What’s new on Peacepalestine

 

Hello friends,

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve done a summary update. But that doesn’t mean a lot of things haven’t been happening. In fact, it’s been a period full of some very, VERY important events. Much of the blog has focused on the heroic efforts of the Hunger Strikers before the Italian Foreign Ministry. Some of these articles are slightly out of date, as I tried to update the hunger strike as much as I could, but even those older press releases of the hunger strikers are full of some very important information, so I am passing along those links as well.

 

 

· Edward Said's Brilliance Lives On  - In Said’s opinion, the only hope for peace would be a single, secular state. “Israelis would probably be OK with this,” he speculated, but American Jews would be an obstacle, since, he explained, they idealize Israel as a religious retirement home. Said described their desire to have a “purely Jewish state” as “purely fantasy,” since, he explained, “if you can’t admit into your consciousness the existence of another people, then you’re really on the way to ruin.” - Tara Ahmadinejad http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/edward-saids-brilliance-lives-on.html

· Omar Barghouti - The Morality of a Cultural Boycott of Israel  - Some critics of boycott argue that it is still necessary for Palestinian intellectuals and artists to maintain and foster open communication channels with their Israeli counterparts, to debate, to share, to convince, to learn and ultimately to reach a common vision for peace.

I beg to differ. Those who imagine they can wish away the conflict by suggesting some forums for rapprochement, détente, or “dialogue” not conditioned upon common recognition of international law and universal human rights are either clinically delusional or dangerously deceptive. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/omar-barghouti-morality-of-cultural.html

· Shepherd, know thy sheep – The first contribution of a series by Joe Kane – From the truth is stranger than fiction department… Edward Said commented on the odd case of Israeli sheep farmers seek provisions to keep the flock Jewish, "This, one might think, is either insanity or some comic fantasy produced in the imagination of a Swift or Kafka. Jewish sheep? The conversion of Arab sheep to Judaism? Surely these things cannot be real. Such distinctions, however, are part of the system of possessive exclusivism which has been imposed upon the reality by central forces in Israeli society. The system rarely discussed at all in the west, certainly not with anything resembling the intensity with which Palestinian terrorism is discussed." http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/shepherd-know-thy-sheep.html

· Brilliant interview with Ilan Pappe - An outstanding interview with Ilan Pappe is up on Peacepalestine documents which originally appeared on the CNI Foundation site. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/brilliant-interview-with-ilan-pappe.html

· Anti-war songs – links to a song in Arabic and one in English in mp3. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/anti-war-songs.html 

· Ariella Atzmon's blog - Stan Goff's blog - Several of you have already read two fine papers of Ariella's here, "Facing Democracy" and "Exiled Writers, the Joy of Translation", so you have already seen how brilliantly she challenges the basic notions of perception and understanding. I find Ariella's writing an exceptional contribution to thinking about how we create our mental frames and the ways that the accounts of things and the things themselves are sometimes very different. The articles are very challenging, and for this, well worth the effort for the discoveries that are revealed within.

Another blog is by someone whose name has been around, but whom I have never checked out until a few weeks ago, Stan Goff. His Feral Scholar is a real treasure for commentary on militarism, gender, culture. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/ariella-atzmons-blog-stan-goffs-blog.html

· Visa for symbol of Abu Ghraib granted - partial success of hunger strikers - We did not succeed in overcoming the refusal of the government and of Foreign Minister Fini, who was subject to U.S. pressure, to approve visas for six highly respected representatives of the Iraqi people.

On the other hand, we have gained two very important results:
1. We turned back the U.S.-driven campaign to criminalize the organizers, which was aimed at crushing all those who support the Iraqi resistance or consider it legitimate.

2. We started the procedure to allow the entrance into Italy of Haj Ali al-Qaysi, the man tortured in Abu Ghraib prison, who can then take part in a tour of meetings protesting the barbarity of war and to denounce the crimes of the occupiers. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/visa-for-symbol-of-abu-ghraib-granted.html

· Prisoner-symbol of Abu Ghraib interviewed  -From my favourite Italian language blog, Kelebek,the reprinting of the interview Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica made with Hajj Ali, the prisoner who has become the symbol of the torture at Abu Ghraib. The introduction is thanks to Miguel’s talent as an Arabist. Translated into English by Mary Rizzo.  “They tortured me, they humiliated me, they have destroyed me inside. I want that what has happened to me never happens again, that everyone knows what those months in Abu Ghraib were like. This is my new life: to denounce that which is happening in the Iraqi prisons, to defend the rights of those who are inside of them”. Former prisoner number 151716 of the prison of shame speaks. The man who has been recognised in one of the photo-symbols of the violence of Abu Ghraib: the hooded prisoner, standing balanced on a cardboard box, his shoulders to the wall, with his arms opened and the fingers of his hands connected to electrical wires. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/prisoner-symbol-of-abu-ghraib.html

· Sharon to address UN General Assembly – text and signatories and text of speech up on Peacepalestine Documents http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/sharon-to-address-un-general-assembly.html

· Protest AIPAC - Peace, anti-war and pro-Palestinian rights activists will protest pro-Israel lobby, neoconservative and Christian Zionist-promoted US wars against both Iraq and Iran. These wars are meant not only to control oil resources and ensure United States dominance of the region, but also to secure Israel’s 57 year illegal occupation of Palestinian land and its state-sanctioned discrimination against Palestinians. Two high ranking AIPAC staffers recently were indicted for illegally receiving classified U.S. military information which enhanced AIPAC's ability to promote aggressive Middle East wars. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/protest-aipac.html

· VIVA Censorship! Conference with Iraqis postponed - Despite the protest of a very broad front comprising democratic and anti-militarist personalities, movements and parties, despite the hunger strike which is still running, the government of Berlusconi-Fini-Pisanu continues to negate the visas for the exponents of the Iraqi opposition. They thus maintain their pact of subordination to the Bush administration symbolically expressed by the letter of the 44 US congress members.

We have been denouncing this pretension not only as an offence against the resisting Iraqi people and the global public opinion but also as a grave attack on democracy and the Italian constitution. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/viva-censorship-conference-with-iraqis.html

· 11th day of hunger strike: health conditions worsening - http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/11th-day-of-hunger-strike-conditions.html

· One Million Reasons – site to say why the Iraq war has got to stop NOW. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/one-million-reasons.html

· Rabbi Lerner - Mazin Qumsiyeh: a virtual debate - Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun asked me a question about demolishing colonial/settler houses in Gaza and if settlers could have become citizens in the "Palestinian state". My response followed by Lerner's additional comments responding to the idea of coexistence and bringing up other issues.

Lerner's additional comments argue that a human rights advocates help right wing policies and that the human rights argument is about eliminating Israel. This is simply not true. A human rights agenda is about eliminating racism and discrimination no more and no less. How could any rational human being support rejecting the right of refugees to return to their homes and lands because they are not Jewish while accepting that any Jew including converts get automatic citizenship? How could anyone support forced demographic engineering? http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/rabbi-lerner-mazin-qumsiyeh-virtual.html

· At least I'm a Jew - Greta Berlin – An activist recounts here misadventures with mini-Zionist-thugs in Hebron. http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/seven-people-on-hunger-strike-against.html

· 7 people on hunger strike against censorship of Iraqi leaders WHY DO THEY WANT TO DENY HAJ ALI (symbol of the Torture of Abu Ghraib) A CHANCE TO SPEAK IN ITALY?

One of the persons to whom the visa has been denied is Haj Ali.
Who is Haj?
He is a symbol of the torture in the prison of Abu Ghraib, the prisoner who was made famous in the photograph with the hood and the electrical wires while standing balanced on a box over a wet floor. Haj was the major of the town of Abu Ghraib. After his tragic experience he founded in Iraq “Iraqi Association of the Victims of American Occupation Prisons” (1h1050 Non Governative Organisation). http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2005/09/seven-people-on-hunger-strike-against.html