Malaysia, a South East Asian Muslim state with a booming economy and a successful and peaceful multicultural, multireligious society, may soon establish a new center to spearhead and rejuvenate the global movement for Palestinian independence. This falls exactly fifty years after the birth in Bandung of the once-powerful anti-colonial bloc of non-aligned states that yielded a powerful influence on the international stage for many years. Under the sponsorship of Peace Malaysia, over 500 participants from 34 countries met March 28-30 in Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia, and unanimously adopted an action plan that called for the creation of a new International Center for Palestine Civil Societies in the South. Read more about New Activist Center in Southeast Asia to Work for Palestinian Independence
Jonathan Pollak is an Israeli activist who grew up in Tel Aviv and lives in Jaffa. He has been involved in nonviolent direct action in the West Bank for the last two-and-a-half years, participating in more than 200 protests with Palestinians in the West Bank with the Israeli nonviolent direct action group Anarchists Against the Wall and with the International Solidarity Movement. On April 3, 2005 an Israeli soldier shot Jonathan in the head with a teargas canister from an M-16 from a distance of approximately thirty meters at a peaceful protest against the Wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in. Bil’in is one of tens of West Bank Palestinian villages losing land because of Israel’s wall construction. Pat O’Connor interviewed Jonathan Pollak by telephone on 7 April 2005. Read more about An Interview with Israeli Activist Jonathan Pollak
Alan Dershowitz is a well-known lawyer and professor at Harvard Law School, a prolific author, and makes regular appearances in the media. When it comes to Israel, he is particularly outspoken and taken quite seriously within certain segments of the North American mainstream. Whether he deserves to be taken seriously is another issue altogether. In a recent talk at York University in Toronto, Canada, Professor Dershowitz repeated many of the controversial claims of his recent book, The Case for Israel, but one claim struck me as — even by his standards — exceptionally far-reaching. Read more about The Case Against Alan Dershowitz: The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel vs. Alan Dershowitz
Bab el Shams (Door to the Sun) is the most recent cinematic achievement from Egyptian director Yousri Nasrallah. Adapted from the novel by Lebanese writer Elias Khoury, this ambitious film takes on the weighty goal of covering roughly fifty years of Palestinian history, from 1943 to 1994, and centers around the lives of a group of Palestinian refugees. EI film critic Jenny Gheith writes that Nasrallah succeeds in his large-scale recreations of demanding passages in Palestinian history while infusing intimate scenes with a nuanced tenderness. Read more about Film review: Door to the Sun
With activists increasing pressure on Caterpillar to stop supplying the Israeli military with equipment it uses to demolish Palestinian homes and businesses in violation of international law, press accounts surfaced in support of ‘poor’ Caterpillar, ranked #57 in the Fortune 1,000 corporate index with 2004 revenues of some $30 billion. Support for CAT is primarily limited to the second-tier intellectual press, mainly the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. Dane Baker reports. Read more about Press sides with Caterpillar's 'right' to sell tools of destruction to human rights violators
Some of the most committed Israeli opponents of their state’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territories have recently expressed serious reservations about, if not strident opposition to, the Palestinian call for boycott of Israel’s academic and cultural institutions. We think that their concerns are worth addressing. Almost all of the publicized reservations we have seen are prefaced with moral support for the right of Palestinians to resist the occupation – nonviolently, most would write – even by calling for boycotts to achieve that goal. Read more about Academic Boycott and the Israeli Left
The British government assisted a leading company in the UK to obtain a lucrative contract with Israel which violates UK policy and international law on the status of Occupied East Jerusalem, an EI investigation has uncovered. Under the contract, signed with the Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UK consulting firm A4e will establish an employment center in Jerusalem. Despite assurances from officials at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv that “we cannot and will not support any work” by A4e in Occupied East Jerusalem, there is conclusive evidence that they did exactly that, damaging UK credibility as an honest broker. EI’s Ali Abunimah reports in a dual exclusive with Middle East International magazine. Read more about EI EXCLUSIVE: Britain's double game
Even Ariel Sharon himself, the father of the settlements and a fervent proponent of the Greater Land of Israel ideology, has come to understand the need for a Palestinian state in order to relieve Israel of the 4 million Palestinians living in the occupied territories. The problem is not a Palestinian state, but a viable Palestinian state. After Bush declared that “a state of scattered territories will not work,” his agreement to Israel’s annexation of its major settlement blocs leaves one to wonder just where that viable Palestinian state will be. One gets the impression that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is being set up for yet another “generous offer” ala Barak and Camp David II. Read more about Another "generous offer" mythology in the works?
The contest between occupation and self-determination, history and erasure establishes the subject for the first contemporary exhibition of Palestinian artwork in the United States. Fittingly, and perhaps a bit defiantly, the show is titled Made In Palestine. The exhibition — on display from April 7th through the 21st at the SomArts Cultural Center in San Francisco’s South of Market district — is a collection of works from twenty-three artists, most of whom currently reside in Palestine. Included in the exhibition are two-dimensional works on paper or canvas, photos and sculpture, as well as textile and video installations. Read more about Review: "Made In Palestine" exhibit
Olympia friends and supporters of Rachel Corrie and her family have called on concerned people worldwide to join them in demonstrating on the International Day of Action Against Caterpillar, April 13. They hope that a vigorous turnout will not only send a strong message to Caterpillar but will also send a positive message of solidarity with the Corrie family as they go forth with what is sure to be a long and difficult landmark legal struggle against the equipment manufacturer. Read more about Activist groups and Corrie family call for International Day of Action against Caterpillar on April 13
