Posted on Sunday, 27 August, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
In a move to combat the US-led political and economic boycott of the Palestinian government, and the Israeli policy that is overtaking the Palestinian economy, a comprehensive boycott of Israeli products is getting underway. — By Mustafa Sabre, Palestine News Network
Apartheid laws + sweatshop conditions = boycoott. At least is has in the U.S. when it was taking place in other parts of the world.
I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. — Bishop Desmond Tutu
Posted on Saturday, 19 August, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Having been given a light once-over by pricks at this airport, I’m not overly surprised that they would stoop this low, but it’s pretty damned horrific what they put my friend Maysoon through recently. Maysoon visits the West Bank yearly to support various centers for disabled children that she fundraises for during the rest of the year thorugh her work as a stand-up comedian. Usually for this work, she’s treated fairly unkindly by the Israeli airport whackjobs. This most recent trip, though shows a new level of low that they will stoop to in order to humiliate Palestinians for daring to travel.
By Emily
August 6, 2006
For more information: www.maysoon.com
I want to tell you the story of what happened to my friend Maysoon Zayid when she left Ben Gurion Airport a few days ago to fly back to NYC.
She called me when she landed in NYC and said “Emily you won’t believe what happened to me at Ben Gurion Airport… I should note that Maysoon has cerebral palsy and went through this whole process in a wheelchair at Ben Gurion airport.
Maysoon began “Emily I was strip-searched. They took everything. They left me naked in the room and when they returned with my clothes they had taken my maxipad.”
What?
“Yes and then I told them I need one and they said they didn’t have any.”
She proceeded to tell them she had more in her hand carry-on. They wouldn’t let her touch her stuff for “security reasons”.
Nor would they give her one maxi-pad from her bag. They would not let her travel with her carry-on luggage on the plane.
My friend Maysoon was made to bleed for hours in the airport all over herself in a wheelchair.
As if that wasn’t enough. She was also not allowed to touch her medication(also in her hand carry-on). She has cerebral palsy and needs to take special medicine or else she will throw up on the flight.
Several hours later she finally boarded Continental Airlines. The stewardess looked at her in disgust when she entered the plane.
Maysoon looked up at her and said “They took my maxi-pad.”
The stewardess’ ramaged through their belongings and managed to produce a pair of shorts etc for her to wear.
She threw up 7 times on the flight as she was not allowed to take her medicine.
Are there words for such horror and brutality?
The policy of treating Palestinians in the most dispicable manner at border crossings has been in place for years in an effort to brutalize people to such an extreme that they will not return.
I remember it all.
Every crossing from Jordan when I was a kid in the 70′s, and later through Ben Gurion in the 80′s. I will not forget.
I will never forget what they did to Maysoon.
Maysoon who is a comedian, an actress and an activist.
She herself is writing down this story in greater detail when she is able to.
+ + +
visit Maysoon’s website: www.maysoon.com
Here is a link for a recent border crossing story written by a European-American. A European-American, not a Palestinian-American, can visit Palestine.
Posted on Thursday, 17 August, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
So, before submitting the Hezbollywood article to CounterPunch, I came to the realization it was way the hell to long so chopped it up. But then I decided there were enough spare parts for a piece of its own. I re-arranged those, updated some information and submitted that creature to Electronic Intifada. It’s a little more strident in its conclusions, but also a mericfully shorter read.
Posted on Wednesday, 16 August, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
These are three people you need to hear from for different takes on the U.S., UK, Israel and their various attempted conquests.
Lt. Ehren Watada’s Speech: “Soldiers Can Choose to Stop Fighting”
Veterans for Peace Convention – August 12, 2006. A Film by Sari Gelzer. In Seattle at the Veterans for Peace Convention, Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, spoke about what he calls a “change of strategy” for the peace movement. Watada said: “Today, I speak with you about a radical idea … The idea is this: that to stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers can choose to stop fighting it.” He received overwhelming support from the crowd, and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War lined the stage in solidarity. His speech came five days before his August 17th pre-trial hearing for refusing deployment to Iraq.
Galloway: ‘The Violence Will Go On” (Can also be found here)
UK Parlimentary Representative George Galloway has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hezbollah is justified in attacking Israel. The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing.
Seymour Hersh: “U.S. Helped Plan Israeli Attack”
The investigative reporter also claims that Cheney was “convinced” an assault on lebanon could serve as prelude for a preemptive attack on Iran.
Posted on Wednesday, 16 August, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
I have to be honest, I didn’t realize this was satire at first. There are so many theories being floated by the whacked-out wingnuts out there that I initially took this as one of them. In actuality, it’s a clever spoof.
Prop rocks?
And if you buy that, he’s got some moon rocks to sell you.
Posted on Tuesday, 15 August, 2006 By yours truly | TOOLS: Talk or Share
Digitally Erasing a Massacre: Why Hezbollywood Was Born
CounterPunch published today an article I wrote on attempts to whitewash the massacre in Qana Lebanon.
If a regular old picture is worth a thousand words, how much does a digitally altered image fetch on the international market today? I ask because a lot of words have been spilled over one digitally altered photograph in particular.
I’ve spent a great deal of time as of late poring over a pair of images, both allegedly derived from a single click of the shutter by Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj on August 5. Both depict a Beirut skyline filled with black smoke after an Israeli bombardment. The one cited as the original unedited version shows a jet blue sky over white, sun-soaked buildings from which inky smoke plumes rise. In the obviously altered second photo, the sky is washed out and pale, the skyline is noticeable higher in the frame, the buildings are darker and have strangely sharpened edges, and the cloud plumes have been digitally cloned with no dramatic or even realistic effect. Smoke just doesn’t look like that.
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating for however long, and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive with 149 other people for several hours – do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained?
