Posted on Sunday, 14 March, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
“Seven years after my daughter Rachel was killed, I was finally able to hear Rachel’s friends, who were with her, testify in a court of law. Despite some disheartening procedural challenges, we remain hopeful that the truth about what happened to Rachel will be revealed, and that the people responsible for her killing will be held accountable.” — Rachel’s mother, Cindy Corrie
I had been following with growing frustration the issue of Israel’s U.S. sponsored occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands since the outbreak of the second Intifada, and my own tepid beginnings as an activist on the issue were spurred by two killings in Gaza, really. The first was the shooting of Mohammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old boy hunkered behind is father as the pair were trapped in the middle of a shooting fight. I watched the boy get killed on TV along with others in the same news room where I worked back then, and it was one of those images that lingered on.
Here’s the thing, and the thing is this: There is no negotiating partner for Palestinians to talk to. Not a one. What is Joe Biden doing in Jerusalem right now? Absolutely nothing useful.
Posted on Saturday, 13 February, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
an effective message at a fraction of Dave Cameron's budget.
Residents of the West Bank village of Bil’in have proven that innovative resistance can move walls. For a second time the village has won a ruling against annexation attempts by a nearby settlement via a wall that that is under construction well outside of Israel’s internationally recognized borders. People there continue to draw from whatever western Pop culture dishes out to keep the issue in the media. Last Friday, Palestinian demonstrators splashed on some blue paint and offered their own 3D rendition of Avatar as they marched against armed Israeli soldiers. Brilliant.
Posted on Sunday, 7 February, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
And here we have further proof that the International Solidarity Movement continues to be one of the most effective organisations at bringing together diverse people to highlight the central crime in the region: the ongoing occupation of Palestine. Israeli occupation soldiers have invaded Ramallah (again) to seize international activists with ISM.
“The raid and detention of the two is in direct violation of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which clearly forbids any Israeli incursion into Area A for reasons not directly and urgently related to security. Even the conduct of “hot pursuit” is disallowed in non-security related matters, which overstayed visas are.”
There are loads of people in Area A with various degrees of Visa rights to be there. ISM’s effective, longstanding platform as an international device for spreading news about the conditions Palestinians are held in by this foreign, occupation government make it a target of the military. In short: they only target you when you’re being effective. Still it begs the question why the PA would enter any such agreements with an occupying regime who have clearly shown no interest in any sort of peace deal or form of co-existence.
Posted on Monday, 4 January, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
To Shoot an elephant is a new documentary by Mohammed Rujailah and my pal Alberto Arce, and they’re holding a January 18 worldwide screening which you can take part in by downloading the entire film and showing it on the day. The film covers emergency workers, human rights activist and other internationals who were in Gaza during last year’s December-January attack by the Israeli military. The footage is a mashup of edits culled from footage for another film, Erased: Wiped off the Map, which is about the attacks on Gaza. Visit www.toshootanelephant.com, where you can also see the English trailer. Download the film and hold your own screening in your living room or share it with others for screenings elsewhere.
Posted on Wednesday, 30 December, 2009 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
I was recently reminded about the Russell Tribunal on Palestine when a friend of mine invited me to join its group on Facebook. I had started a post on it some time ago, one of many along the lines of “look at this, isn’t this neat” type of thing. But the Tribunal, though still new, is kicking into high gear in March of 2010 with a its first session in Barcelona. Before that takes place I decided to look around its already published statements and whose who lists to see if it was something worth following or another in a long series of well-meaning organizations basically telling us all what we really already know without offering a tangible way forward.
The InterWeb loves a list, so that’s how we’ll format this one.
“SEO is a form of Google-Kremlinology in which firms attempt to figure out how to game search engines’ ranking algorithms, rather than trying to create the best, most interesting website they can and assuming that the engines will figure out how to highly rank their material.” — Cory Doctorow
I was recently reminded about the 
“SEO is a form of Google-Kremlinology in which firms attempt to figure out how to game search engines’ ranking algorithms, rather than trying to create the best, most interesting website they can and assuming that the engines will figure out how to highly rank their material.”