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
The report recently released by Columbia’s Ad Hoc Grievance Committee is an odd document. Several people, including this author, have pointed out that the section dealing with three student grievances against two professors makes very little sense. The report seems to simply discount the word of Dr. Joseph Massad while taking the word a Dr. George Saliba at face value. In the case of a simple “he said, she said” grievance against Dr. Saliba, the Committee sided with the accused professor. In the case of “four people testify for Dr. Massad (including Dr. Massad), while three people testify for his accuser (including his accuser),” and when the testimony of Dr. Massad’s four is far more consistent and less suspect than that of the three testifying against him, the Committee sided with the accuser. Read more about Some Observations on Academic Freedom
When he was eight years old, Ivor Dembina was asked by his teacher Mr. Benson, “Are you British, or are you Jewish?” So began the journey of the North Londoner comedian (he jokes that his parents are refugees of South London) who came to question religious versus national identity, and in his hit show This is Not a Subject for Comedy gets his audience to remember the importance of this distinction. Though the show is the result of a trip to Jenin he made as a guest of the International Solidarity Movement, his experience growing up Jewish and becoming socially aware that drives the show. Read more about "This is Not a Subject for Comedy": Jewish comedian tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In late 2004, claims of intimidation in the department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) of Columbia University hit newspapers around the world after an unreleased documentary Columbia Unbecoming, which purported to reveal incidences of intimidation and anti-Semitism in the classroom. The primary target of the organized campaign was Professor Joseph Massad. Columbia University ultimately formed an ad hoc committee to investigate, which released its report on 31 March 2005. Joseph Massad responds. Read more about EI EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Massad's response to the Ad Hoc Grievance Committee Report
On 31 March 2005, Columbia University publicly released the report of a faculty Ad Hoc Grievance Committee charged with examining student complaints of intimidation in the classroom by faculty in the department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC). The Ad Hoc Grievance Committee, which was composed of five University faculty members and advised by First Amendment scholar and Columbia Visiting Professor Floyd Abrams, was formed in December 2004 to identify the facts underlying student concerns of intimidation in the classroom. In this exclusive, EI publishes the full text of Joseph Massad’s rebuttal. Read more about EI EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Massad's statement to Columbia University's Ad Hoc Grievance Committee
Directed by a member of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies Council and a recent head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (JCSS) at Tel Aviv University named Shai Feldman (no relation to this writer), the new Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University apparently won’t have to operate on a shoestring budget. According to the Boston Globe, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies already has an endowment of $25 million. “The center will seek to produce a discourse on the Middle East as dispassionate, objective and centrist as possible,” Feldman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a recent interview. Looking at the players, this seems unlikely. Read more about Brandeis University's "objective" center for Middle East Studies undermined by Israeli and US military connections
In early March 2005, the High Court of Australia made a unanimous decision to give refugee protection to a Russian Jewish doctor and his son. The Australian court determined that it could not “offload its responsibilities” to protect them by arguing Israel was a ‘safe third country’ on the basis of the so-called law of return or ‘Aliyah’. The decision has important implications as it directly challenges the notion held by Israel and its supporters that there must exist a ‘Jewish state’ for the exclusive protection of Jews. There are clear and growing signs that many Jews do not see Israel as a “safe haven” and therefore seek refuge elsewhere. Read more about Is Israel a safe haven for Jews?
30 March 2005 marked the 29th anniversary of Yum El-Ard (“Land Day”) — the first mass political protest of Arab citizens of Israel, now commemorated as a national day for Palestinians worldwide. Sharif Hamadeh interviews Fr. Shehadeh Shehadeh, the activist-priest who headed the first protest in 1976. “People here are not very happy,” he says, referring to the Palestinian minority in Israel. “I’m always optimistic and I always pray for peace and work for peace - I even have a committee called Clergy for Peace - but at this time, I’m very pessimistic.” Read more about The First Yum El-Ard Protest: An interview with Fr. Shehadeh Shehadeh
Last week’s announcement that Israel is constructing 3500 housing units in E-1, a corridor connecting Jerusalem to the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, seals the fate of the Palestinian state. As a key element of an Israeli “Greater Jerusalem,” the E-1 plan removes any viability from a Palestinian state. It cuts the West Bank in half, allowing Israel to control Palestinian movement from one part of their country to another, while isolating East Jerusalem from the rest of Palestinian territory. Since 40% of the Palestinian economy revolves around Jerusalem, the E-1 plan effectively cuts the economic heart out of any Palestinian state, rendering it nothing more than a set of non-viable Indian reservations. Read more about E-1: The end of a viable Palestinian state
Tim Llewellyn was the BBC’s Middle East correspondent twice from 1976 - 1982 and from 1987 - 1992. Based in Beirut and Cyprus, Llewellyn covered the Lebanese civil war, the Iranian Revolution, the Tanker Wars, the first Palestinian intifada, and the first Gulf War. He was one of the first foreign correspondents to enter the camps of Sabra and Shatila after the massacres there by Phalangist Forces under the auspices of the Israeli army in September 1982. In this interview, exclusive to the Electronic Intifada, Llewellyn talks candidly about the BBC, and the pressures that organization and its correspondents are under, when reporting from the Middle East. Read more about BBC reporting doesn't tell the whole story
