Tom Wallace

Normally CNN, FOX, MSNBC and the New York Times have little in common with each other, let alone blogs like little green footballs, Americablog or the Huffington Post. But when it comes to disseminating Israel’s message, all are on the same page. On May 8, CNN, FOX and MSNBC began reporting on a Hamas-created children’s show, currently broadcast on Al Aqsa TV in Gaza, which features a Mickey Mouse-like cartoon character who does everything from teaching kids about the benefits of drinking milk to disseminating what CNN’s Jim Clancy described as “powerful message of HATE, RESISTANCE and DEFIANCE [sic]”.

Once again the play My Name is Rachel Corrie has been cancelled, this time in South Florida. In New York and Toronto the play was cancelled due to pressure from the Jewish community or those that claim to speak for the Jewish Community. The play was successfully staged in NYC at the Minetta Lane theater. It is currently enjoying an extraordinary run at the Seattle Repertory Theater and many more are planned. Wherever it has been staged, there has been support from the Jewish community as well as criticism. The Jewish community is not monolithic and no one speaks for “it,” though many claim to.

It’s been a long time coming but two weeks ago several ads created by Imagine Life began airing in Boston. Many Boston area groups coordinated raising the money and arranging the airing. As in other markets — 80 cities around the country — it was very exciting to see honest portrayals on American television of the grotesque and oppressive circumstances under which Palestinian people live. These ads ran on CNN and MSNBC. Bostonians were jubilant. There was hope.

It is not difficult to find the silver lining in the very sad and infuriating conclusion (temporary) to the issue of divestment in Somerville, MA. After a long process and sometimes rancorous debate, the aldermen caved to pressure from powerful Jewish groups who blindly support Israel; as one woman said to me “no matter what, no matter what, “no matter what” with her eyes closed and shaking her head poetically. That the Somerville Divestment Project got as far as it did towards passing a divestment resolution is nothing less than spectacular. Tom Wallace reports for EI.

Tension and apprehension filled the air in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts on the night of Monday November 8, 2004.  The Somerville Board of Aldermen held a public meeting to consider a non-binding resolution to divest from Israel bonds and from companies who profit from the human rights abuses carried out by Israel against Palestinian people. If it passes, it will be the first such resolution in the world to be passed by a city. The Presbyterian Church and the National Lawyers Guild have already voted to divest and The Anglican Church is considering it. Tom Wallace reports for EI.

In the aftermath of the horror that has been visited upon Rafah over the past two weeks in particular but the past three years in general, Americans across the country are asking their congress people to stop military aid to Israel. On Friday 21 May 2004, there were sit-ins and other similar actions at congressional offices in San Francisco, Louisville, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Olympia, New York, and more. Following a week of calling representatives, Senators and the White House, Bostonians marched to the campaign office of John Kerry. Tom Wallace reports for EI.

The self-imposed US media blackout on the Wall’s construction finally began to lift last August when President Bush mentioned the problems created by Israel’s wall “snaking its way through the West Bank.” Last December, a year and half after bulldozers began cutting the Wall’s path through Palestinian villages, Thomas Friedman hosted a Discovery Channel program in association with The New York Times, and Bob Simon anchored a CBS 60 Minutes segment introducing the controversy surrounding one of the world’s largest construction projects. David Bloom, Patrick Connors, and Tom Wallace examine the two programs.

“We are unwavering in our commitment to nonviolence. Due to these beliefs, we oppose the illegal Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. As a result we have come under heavy fire in the Occupied Territories and in the media. Israeli officials and several right-wing Israeli and American pundits have embarked on a campaign to discredit ISM, by attempting to equate ISM’s principled and active support for Palestinian rights with terrorism.” Tom Wallace and Rakhika Sainath recently wrote this op/ed in The Jerusalem Post.

“At 1:00 PM today Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall made their way to Yebna, Rafah where their son Tom was shot on Friday, April 12, by an Israeli sniper. The entourage of two range rovers and a UN vehicle arrived at the ISM apartment where a throng of reporters and photographers awaited their arrival.” This update from Tom Wallace, International Solidarity Movement media contact in Beit Sahour, chronicles a family’s search for justice.

On Thursday, On April 10, an undercover Israeli special forces team assassinated two Palestinian men in the middle of the5{Tulkaremis downtown market area. On the morning of April 10, Israeli soldiers shot and injured two civilian Palestinian brothers, both teenagers, in the Jibna area of Rafah, Palestinian witnesses say. ISM Media Coordinator Tom Wallace reports.