All Content

Obama and the Jews

Harold Brackman 9 March 2007


Those looking for Obama’s views on the Mideast won’t find a great deal. In 2004, he disappointed Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada by giving a speech to Chicago’s Council on Foreign Relations endorsing the U.S. alliance with Israel. Speaking before Jewish audiences during his Senate campaign, he reassured them that his Swahili first name, Barack (“Blessed”), is a close relation of Baruch in Hebrew. His current bestseller, “The Audacity of Hope” — a carefully crafted manifesto positioning him for his 2008 run — has a page on a recent trip to the Mideast, where he talked to both Holocaust survivors and Palestinian villagers. 

Video: Interview with wounded son of man killed in Nablus Invasion

Research Journalism Initiative and a-films 9 March 2007


On 26 February 2007, the second day of the Israeli invasion, Anan Tibi was shot and wounded while on the rood of the the family’s home in the Old City of Nablus. Only seconds before, Tibi’s son Ashraf was also shot and wounded. From his hospital bed Tibi describes what happened: “When I went down the stairs that lead from the roof to our home I was shot in the arm. I told my father I was shot. … I sent my brother downstairs to get an ambulance. I reached our home and heard a second shot. When I looked up I saw my father lying on the stairs.” This video-interview was produced by the Research Journalism Initiative and the Anarchist Film Collective “A-Films”. 

Israeli soldiers use two Palestinian minors as human shields

9 March 2007


8 March 2007: Testimonies taken by B’Tselem reveal that during the army’s operation in Nablus in late February, soldiers used two Palestinian children, a fifteen-year-old boy and a eleven-year-old girl, and a twenty-four-year old man as human shields. The use of human shields constitutes a flagrant breach of international humanitarian law and is explicitly and clearly prohibited by Israeli military orders. B’Tselem wrote to the Judge Advocate General and demanded that he immediately order a Military Police investigation into the matter. 

Impunity for Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls Must End

8 March 2007


Al-Haq takes the occasion of International Women’s Day, under the theme of ‘Ending Impunity for Violence against Women and Girls,’ to highlight the alarming situation of Palestinian women who not only live under the yoke of an oppressive military occupation that denies them the fundamental protections of international human rights and humanitarian law, but who, like women in countries across the globe, also suffer the denial of their basic rights within their own society. 

The Mecca Charity Show

Roni Ben Efrat 8 March 2007


At first glance, indeed, the Mecca Agreement may seem a great wonder, considering what we published here two months ago. We divided - and still divide - the Middle East into two axes. One included the US, Saudia Arabia and Fatah, and the other included Iran, Syria and Hamas. Under these circumstances, how was agreement possible? The answer lies in a temporary conjunction of interests between Saudi Arabia and Iran. When we unpeel a few layers, however, the dovish feathers fall away: the Mecca Agreement is a mere time-out - not the basis for a new beginning. 

Violence against women rises in the occupied territories

7 March 2007


Three Palestinian women were shot dead in the northern Gaza Strip last month — rumours say it had to do with ‘honour’. The corpses of the women — Ibtisam Mohammad Musallam Abu Qeinas, 31; Samira Tahani Debeiky, 45; and Amani Khamis Hosari, 40 - were found within a 24-hour period in Beit Lahiya and Gaza City, leaving residents shocked. “People are saying it was an honour killing, that the women were of loose morals…” 

Obama Pivots Away From Dovish Past

Larry Cohler-Esses 7 March 2007


Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s maiden speech to the pro-Israel lobby last week saw a man described by early supporters as an ardent dove on Israel take flight as a bird of considerably more hawkish mien reports The Jewish Weekly. But Ali Abunimah, a Hyde Park Palestinian-American activist, and co-Founder of The Electronic Intifada “said that until a few years ago, Obama was ‘quite frank that the U.S. needed to be more evenhanded, that it leaned too much toward Israel.’ It was vivid in his memory, said Abunimah, because ‘these were the kind of statements I’d never heard from a U.S. politician who seemed like he was going somewhere rather than at the end of his career.’” 

The lighter side of the Axis of Evil

Maureen Clare Murphy 8 March 2007


Since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., Middle Easterners have found themselves under the microscope, especially in the US, and our polarized world is being misdiagnosed as a “clash of civilizations.” Thankfully, standup comedians Dean Obeidallah, Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader, and Maz Jobrani are here to skewer it all in the must-see Axis of Evil Comedy Special, which airs in the US on Comedy Central this Saturday. Comprised of American performers of Middle Eastern descent, the Axis of Evil Comedy Show is an ongoing tour that began in 2005 and has been greeted across the US with critical acclaim. 

Canadians and the International Boycott Movement

Freda Guttman 7 March 2007


We in Canada have our own AIPAC’s, devoted Zionists in bed with our government, and the Christian Right. However, we also have many Palestine solidarity and Arab organizations, as well as grass roots civil groups that have flowered here over the years, and take a dynamic, public position on the occupation, the right of return, the human rights abuses that Palestinians are subjected to, and have wholly embraced the movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel. We consider it our mandate to educate the Canadian public on these issues and as well, on our government’s untenable and right wing policies towards the Middle East. 

Video: Interview with child taken as human shield in Nablus

Research Journalism Initiative and a-films 7 March 2007


On 28 February 2007, during the Israeli invasion of Nablus, the IOF kidnapped 11-year-old Jihan Tahdush from her home in the Old City of Nablus. She was used as a human shield while Israeli forces conducted door-to-door searches in the Old City. Jihan says of the incident: “They gave me biscuits to persuade me to talk to them, but I didn’t tell them anything. When I brought them to the house they told me not to be afraid because they were with me. When I asked to go back to my mom, they said, ‘We have to keep you a bit longer.’” This video-interview was produced by the Research Journalism Initiative and the Anarchist Film Collective “A-Films”.