Nigel Parry

Palestinians are reeling from a century of systematic destruction of their way of life at every possible level. Instead of pouring gasoline on the fire, as the US-Israel-Fatah coalition has been doing, and instead of debating the price of petrol, as the international community has busied itself with throughout the entire history of this conflict, we need to recognize that events are fast reaching the straw breaking the camel’s back moment. Few seem to grasp that ‘business as usual’ in the Middle East can only be destined to lead to more suffering, death, and loss of hope, and that the time to act was yesterday.

Following a successful August 12th projection action on landmarks and in public areas of New York City, a multimedia projection team consisting of Emily Jacir, Bassem Nassar and Prerana Reddy reassembled on August 24th to create a mobile projection vehicle and take a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and multimedia pieces to the streets. Equipment and guidance were provided by the Graffiti Reseach Lab. Photo documentation by Nigel Parry.

On Saturday, August 12th, members of the NY-based activist collective Action Wednesday, organized a series of projections in outdoor public spaces around Manhattan. The videos were aimed at giving out information and raising awareness about Israel’s war against Lebanon. Three locations were chosen for projections: Washington Square Park, Union Square, and the Bowery. Five videos were used: the Electronic Lebanon PSA, “From Beirut to…those who love us”, “Beirut 1982/2006”, footage from a recent demonstration in Washington DC, and a montage of images and factoids. Equipment and guidance was provided by the Graffiti Reseach Lab. Photos by EI’s Nigel Parry.

As the Israeli war on Lebanon continues to dominate world headlines, Israel’s nearly one-sided war against Gaza seems to be taking place in a relative media blind spot. United Nations humanitarian agencies estimated on August 3rd that 1,050 Israeli artillery shells were fired into Gaza in the preceding week and “…since 28 June, 175 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 40 children and eight women, and over 620 injured in the Gaza Strip… Palestinians have fired on average between 8-9 homemade rockets per day towards Israel (319 in total) and the Israeli military has fired on average 200-250 artillery shells per day into the Gaza Strip and conducted at least 220 aerial bombings.”

The Electronic Intifada’s coverage of “Operation Summer Rain” — the code name for Israel’s massive destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure — continues. EI is currently being updated several times daily from around the world. During the Gaza invasion, we are using all of our site’s five multimedia panels to point to the special BY TOPIC section of Key Events, “Israel invades Gaza (27 June 2006)”, and to showcase some of the incredible photographs from on the ground put out by the Ma’an News Agency. EI was saddened to learn this morning of the serious injury of 20-year-old Ma’an photographer Mohammad Az Zanoun in Gaza.

At 11:51PM (Palestine time) on June 27th, Israel launched a large scale military assault on Gaza, as Israeli fighter planes carried out three airstrikes on Gazan bridges. Further strikes against Gazan power plants took place at 1:42AM, sending most of Gaza into darkness. At 2:24AM, Israeli forces began moving into Gaza to take control of the open areas east of Rafah. According to Israeli PM Ehud Olmert the aim of the invasion was “not to mete out punishment but rather to apply pressure so that the abducted soldier will be freed. We want to create a new equation — freeing the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the Palestinians.”

Reading Lee Kaplan’s various articles, in a variety of publications over the last several months, on the supposed links between organizations that work for Palestinian freedom, my primary reaction is how severely and routinely they are riddled with basic factual errors. He clearly knows next to nothing about what he is writing about. Where there is not error, there is speculation that bases its trajectory on error… One obvious reason that has given rise to all of this is that Kaplan has never once picked up the phone to ask myself or anyone else at EI the usual questions that journalists are supposed to ask before they put pen to paper.

After the 9 June 2006 Israeli shelling of the beach in Gaza that killed eight Palestinians, including seven members of the same family, and injured 32 civilians, including 13 children, the Israeli government initially expressed it’s “deep regret” at the incident. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised an investigation, stating that “there has never been - and there isn’t now - a policy of attacking civilians,” a blatant but reassuring lie for those of us who want to believe that these things aren’t so. EI’s Nigel Parry looks at the patterns.

We are writing you regarding the Black Eyed Peas’ concert in Tel Aviv June 3rd during which you put on a spectacular performance to an effusive Israeli crowd. During the concert, Ms. Ferguson declared that Israel is “one of the most fun places on the planet.” Mr. Adams described the Peas’ time in Israel as “the best five days of our lives.” However, for your Palestinian fans living in the West Bank in Gaza, who are not allowed to travel to Tel Aviv to attend hip-hop shows, life under the thumb of Israeli occupation is anything but fun.

Made in Palestine is the first museum quality exhibition devoted to the contemporary art of Palestine to be held in the United States. It is a survey of work spanning three generations of Palestinian artists who live in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, parts of Israel, Syria, Jordan, and the United States. The exhibition opened in New York on March 14th, and held its gala opening on March 16th. EI’s Nigel Parry, also working on publicity for the exhibit, contributed this photostory from the opening.