December 2011

NGO Monitor creates fake controversy over EI articles in attack on Democrat think-tank

Ali Abunimah 31 December 2011

NGO Monitor, the Israeli far-right group that wages campaigns of defamation against organizations that don’t toe their anti-Palestinian line, has launched a new campaign against the Center for American Progress, a Washington think-tank tied to the Democratic Party. The campaign has also been joined by Commentary, the far-right publication notorious for its anti-Palestinian sentiment. 

Campaign launched against French purchase of Israeli drones as senators demand deal be abandoned

Ali Abunimah 30 December 2011

French boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigners have called on their government to abandon a €318 million deal to buy Heron TP drones from Israel Aircraft Industries. Meanwhile, senior members of France’s Senate have called publicly for the country to abandon the purchase on grounds that the Israeli drones are unsuited to the needs of the armed forces. 

Whatever happened to Tom MacMaster, the "Gay Girl in Damascus" hoaxer?

Benjamin Doherty 29 December 2011

Last June The Electronic Intifada exposed the identity of the person behind the “Gay Girl in Damascus” hoax. The perpetrator was Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old American graduate student at the University of Edinburgh. After an surge of media attention, MacMaster disappeared from the public eye. The University of Edinburgh promised to investigate. But what happened, and was MacMaster ever held accountable for a hoax that many believe caused genuine harm? Documents released by the University of Edinburgh under the UK’s Freedom of Information Act, reveal that not only was MacMaster allowed to stay on as a student, but that the university sought as much as possible to gag him while never publishing any results of its investigation.. 

Israel navy attempts to capsize international monitoring boat off Gaza, injures captain

Ali Abunimah 28 December 2011

An Israeli gunboat attacked the Oliva today off the shores of Gaza, according to two crew members, injuring the Palestinian captain. The Oliva, a boat operated by the Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA) accompanies Gaza fishermen to sea to monitor frequent Israeli attacks and harassment of Palestinian fishing boats. 

Open Letter from Gaza: Three Years after the Massacre, Justice or Nothing!

Benjamin Doherty 27 December 2011

The One Democratic State Group in Gaza has issued this statement: We, Palestinians of Gaza, 3 years on from the 22-day long massacre in Israel’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, are calling on international civil society to make 2012 the year when solidarity with us in Palestine captures the spark of the revolutions around the Arab world and never looks back. On this anniversary we demand an international liberation movement that eventually leads to just that, liberation for us Palestinians from 63 years of brutal military occupation and ethnic cleansing that pours shame on any organisation or government claiming to endorse universal human rights. 

"When they rape you don't object": Israeli "satire" show incites hatred of Muslims, Europeans

Ali Abunimah 27 December 2011

The popular Israeli web-based satirical show LatmaTV has released a musical video containing crude anti-Muslim stereotypes and mocking Europeans as “dummies” for supposedly allowing their countries to be taken over by Islam and turned into “Eurabia.” In one sequence, a Norwegian father tells his blonde daughter about Muslims: “When they rape you don’t object for that is politically incorrect.” 

Protests held at Lacoste stores across France against "racism" and censorship of Palestinian artist

Ali Abunimah 26 December 2011

Palestine solidarity activists staged protests on Christmas Eve at Lacoste clothing stores in several French cities to protest the censorship and expulsion of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour from a prestigious art competition sponsored by the French luxury clothing. 

Merry Christmas from Gaza

Shahd Abusalama 26 December 2011

Being a Muslim, I never celebrated Christmas myself, but having lots of Christian friends inside and outside Palestine has connected me to this day. I’ve always shared it with them one way or another, since I believe that religion shouldn’t stand as a barrier between human beings. Here, I describe how I celebrated Christmas and how Christians in Gaza celebrate it. I recall some of my childhood memories from my only visit to the Church of Nativity since I was 9 years old. 

Christmas in Gaza: Two Narratives

Mohammed Suliman 24 December 2011

It’s Christmas Eve, and it has arrived in the Gaza Strip, the less holy part of the holy land. Palestinian Christians, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, are preparing to have festive celebrations despite the Israeli occupation’s repressive restrictions which have prevented most of them from getting to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, to celebrate with their fellow Palestinians in the West Bank. 

Christmas in Bethlehem

Jalal Abukhater 24 December 2011

Bethlehem, the city of peace and the birthplace of Jesus Christ, has become a ghetto in the world we know today thanks to the Israeli occupation. With over 23 physical barriers surrounding the city, apartheid wall cutting through its outskirts, and settlements strangling the city of Bethlehem from all directions, the idea of living there or even visiting this holy city has become an unpleasant and dreadful idea. 

Film: Donor Opium

Jalal Abukhater 23 December 2011

Donor Opium is a new documentary film directed by Mariam Shahin and George Azar about the impact of international aid to Palestinians. The film features Palestinian criticisms of this externally funded “development”. Featured speakers are Khaled Sabawi, Sami Abdel-Shafi, Linda Tabar, Iyad Al Riyahi and Khalil Nakhleh. 

Owner of Lacoste, which censored Palestinian artist, is major donor to Israel, Zionist causes

Ali Abunimah 22 December 2011

One of the largest shareholders of high-end French fashion firm Lacoste is a major donor to Israel and Zionist causes. Lacoste has been at the center of a scandal over the company’s insistence that Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour be forced out of the prestigious Lacoste Elysée Prize in Photography. 

BDS roundup: "Don't put the fruits of apartheid under your Christmas tree!"

Nora Barrows-Friedman 22 December 2011

Holiday shopping-related actions took place around the world as BDS activists encouraged shoppers not to buy Israeli products. And a group in California calls on the state pension fund to investigate its investment ties with Israeli companies and US companies that do business with the Israeli military. 

Swiss museum suspends Elysée Prize to protest Lacoste's exclusion of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour

Ali Abunimah 21 December 2011

The Musée de L’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland has suspended the 2011 Lacoste Elysée Prize, a presitigious international photography contest, over the sponsor’s decision to expel Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour. The following press release was issued by the museum. 

Susan Youssef's Habibi, a Gaza feature film a decade in the making, wins major award

Ali Abunimah 21 December 2011

Susan Youssef’s new feature film Habibi has won the award for Best Arab Feature Film at the 8th Dubai International Film Festival. This achievement comes after a decade-long struggle by Youssef to make the film. Last year she wrote for The Electronic Intifada about the trials of making a feature film set in Gaza and what inspired it: 

Evidence of Lacoste's censorship of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour captured by Google cache

Ali Abunimah 21 December 2011

Earlier today, I wrote about the scandalous expulsion of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour from the prestigious Lacoste Elysée Prize shortlist at the request of Lacoste, the high-end French fashion company that sponsors the contest. Sansour, who was born in Jerusalem, said in a press release that Lacoste wanted her out because she was too “too pro-Palestinian.” The press release also stated: 

Land swap deals concluded under occupation are illegal, rights group warns Palestinian leaders

Adri Nieuwhof 20 December 2011

The human rights organization Al Haq published a new report on the illegality of ‘land swap’ agreements that warns Palestinian leaders that as long as Israel occupies the Palestinian territory, any ‘land swap’ agreement is contrary to international law. 

French clothing firm Lacoste censors, expels Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour from prestigious contest

Ali Abunimah 20 December 2011

The high-end French clothing chain Lacoste has demanded the removal of work by Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour from the shortlist for the €25,000 Lacoste Elysee Prize that is awarded by the Swiss Musee de l’Elysee with sponsorship from the firm. 

Are we not humans?

Mohammed Suliman 20 December 2011

I am a Palestinian. Hath not a Palestinian eyes? hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as an Israeli Jew is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. 

Secret EU document shows concern for Palestinian citizens of Israel

Ben White 16 December 2011

Today’s Ha’aretz gave prominent coverage to extracts the paper had obtained from a “classified” draft document prepared by European embassies in Israel. The paper is being described as “unprecedented” for the way in which it “deals with internal Israeli issues” – namely, “Israel’s treatment of its Arab population”. 

Israel's Reut Institute claims "price tag" attacks on EI, Irvine 11 and Palestine Return Centre

Ali Abunimah 15 December 2011

Israel’s Reut Institute, which notoriously called on Israeli government agencies to “sabotage” and “attack” the Palestine solidarity movement – and then tried to conceal it – is claiming credit for “price tag” attacks on The Electronic Intifada, the Palestine Return Centre, the Irvine 11 and others. 

Veolia tries to sugar-coat its complicity in Israeli violations of international law

Adri Nieuwhof 14 December 2011

Veolia is involved in several Israeli projects in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law. Veolia tries to sugar-coat its complicity in Israeli violations of international law by offering a pittance to the Palestinian villagers of Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley. The company has placed three refuse containers there for free waste collection. 

Statement in solidarity with Razan Ghazzawi

Jalal Abukhater 14 December 2011

This is a statement by Palestinian bloggers and activists supporting all political prisoners of the Syrian Revolution, it reads: We, a group of Palestinian bloggers and activists raise our voices loud and clear in solidarity with all the prisoners of the Great Syrian Revolution. We stand with all the prisoners, activists, artists, bloggers and others, all who are shouting in the streets or on various platforms demanding freedom and justice, while decrying the huge amount on injustice and oppression practiced by the Syrian regime for more than four decades. 

Palestine mourns another real legend, a symbol of motherhood

Shahd Abusalama 11 December 2011

A mother of two former prisoners who were deported from Hebron to the Gaza Strip arrived Gaza a week ago to celebrate her sons’ freedom. After ten years of long waiting attached with every emotion of worry, sadness, suffering, humiliation moving between check point trying to visit her imprisoned sons, she lived 6 days with them and then passed away leaving us real legend, a symbol of patience, challenge, motherhood. 

Pinkwashing and the Israeli ads that wipe Palestine off the map

Asa Winstanley 11 December 2011

Two of the UK’s bestselling lifestyle magazines aimed at gay men have published the controversial Israeli advert that wipes Palestine and Syria off the map. Last Sunday I wrote about the “Think Israel” advertising campaign underway here in the UK. The Guardian received hundred of complaints after running a glossy advert that included a map in which the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories appear annexed to Israel. But it has now emerged that Attitude and Gay Times have both published the same advert (December and January issues respectively). Below are scans of all four pages of the ad as it appeared in Attitude, as a fold-out inside the front cover. 

Watch: Israeli professor describes "racist discourse" of official school books

Asa Winstanley 8 December 2011


Alternate Focus recently conducted this interview with Israeli academic Nurit Peled-Elhanan. She is author of the forthcoming book “Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education”, which I am hoping to review for EI. The interview is very much worth watching. It should give anyone deluded enough to think appropriate change can come within Israeli society serious pause for thought. 

Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal, who tried to stifle The Electronic Intifada, sponsors 'Internet freedom' conference

Ali Abunimah 7 December 2011

The Dutch Foreign Minister, Uri Rosenthal, who attempted to stifle The Electronic Intifada last year by pressuring one of its donors, and has directly threatened Dutch civil society for defying his pro-Israel policies, is now supposedly an advocate of “Internet freedom.” 

NBC's Telemundo investigating anti-Muslim tweets by "social media coordinator"

Ali Abunimah 7 December 2011

Update and resolution: Telemundo contractor terminated after racist tweets exposed Telemundo released the following statement this afternoon, 7 December: We have investigated the matter  and have found that the person associated with the twitter handle @hotchulo was a part-time contracted worker.   

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UPDATED: Israeli campaign to attract UK tourists wipes Palestine and Syria off the map

Asa Winstanley 4 December 2011

Update: After “hundreds” of complaints, the Guardian has refused to publish subsequent ads from the Israeli tourism ministry. See full update below. An Israeli tourism map appearing in the Guardian last weekend rendered occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories as part of “Israel”. The map very much appears to be in breach of UK advertising regulations. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in 2009 upheld complaints against an Israeli tourism bilboard because it included a similar map, ruling the ad “must not appear again in its current form”. The three-page advertising spread from the Israeli tourism ministry in the Guardian Weekend is part of what increasingly looks like a major new advertising campaign in the UK. 

Video: Students organize mass walk-out targeting Israel's token Arab spokesperson

Maureen Clare Murphy 4 December 2011

Students at the University of Michigan have done it again — a year after the silent mass walk-out from a propaganda event on campus featuring an Israeli soldier, setting an example followed by students at several other campuses, students organized another mass walk-out from a hasbara lecture by the Israeli government’s token Arab spokesperson, Ishmael Khaldi. 

Row over UK lawmaker's "Jewish" comments a reminder that Zionism is anti-Semitism

Ali Abunimah 1 December 2011

Controversy has broken out in the UK over alleged anti-Semitic comments made by Labour MP Paul Flynn about the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv. According to The Jewish Chronicle (a publication whose record demonstrates that its accuracy can never been taken for granted) Flynn questioned whether Gould could be properly loyal to the UK because he is Jewish and has declared himself a Zionist: