The Electronic Intifada

Attack on Berkeley divestment bill dishonest and misleading


A coalition of nearly 20 Jewish groups, ranging from the right-wing David Project and the Jewish National Fund to the liberal J Street, is distributing a misleading statement condemning a Student Senate bill calling for divestment from the Israeli occupation at the University of California, Berkeley. They refer to the bill as “dishonest” and “misleading” and “based on contested allegations.” Yet it is their letter that is both dishonest and misleading. Sydney Levy and Yaman Salahi comment. 

Talking Palestine to power


It is indeed possible for all of us to “squeeze out of reality some of its potentialities,” the reality that University of Melbourne Professor Ghassan Hage has said is found in those utopic moments that come from challenging our own thoughts, fears and biases. In that space lies the untapped power we seek, to speak the truth without fear or favor. Sonja Karkar comments. 

Play shows that for Gaza women, everything is not fine


It takes an Arab to live in the midst of political divisions, years of siege and occupation, and still say, “everything is fine.” Specifically, it must be an Arab man. Ask any woman in Gaza and she will tell you the opposite. That is, at least, the main message that comes across so clearly in the latest play staged in the Gaza Strip bearing the name “Kull Shi Tamaam” (Everything is Fine), written by local playwright Atef Abu Seif — a prolific author from Jabalia refugee camp. Sami Abu Salem reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. 

Journalist whistleblower faces life imprisonment, or worse


What is misleadingly being called in Israel the “Anat Kamm espionage affair” is quickly revealing the dark underbelly of a nation that has worshipped for decades at the altar of a security state. Next week 23-year-old Kamm is due to stand trial for her life — or rather the state’s demand that she serve a life sentence for passing secret documents to an Israeli reporter, Uri Blau, of the liberal Haaretz daily. She is charged with spying. Jonathan Cook analyzes. 

A new political option for confronting Israel


There is a nonviolent political option out of the current “peace process” impasse. A new political strategy would involve recognizing this basic shortcoming and demand a return to legality, in effect a return to the days before the 1991 Madrid Conference which launched the past two decades of futile “negotiations” and accelerated Israeli colonization. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. 

US military aid to Israel violates domestic, international law


Since the US government gives no military assistance to any of the Palestinian resistance groups, the question with regard to US military aid and transfer of weapons applies only to Israel. Should the US government, based on international and domestic law, cut military aid and cease the transfer of weapons to Israel? Nahida H Gordon comments for The Electronic Intifada.