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Thanks to Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl

for his heads up about Toronto's This Ain't the Rosedale Library, a great, great bookstore that is in deep trouble. When I read there earlier this year, Charlie Huisken, the owner, brought out a great crowd. Though people bought my books, Charlie paid me, full price, for all the ones that went unsold. What a generous gesture.


A transplanted American, Charlie also has a weekly radio show focusing on the arts. He is a tremendous asset to Toronto. You can support Charlie and his invaluable bookstore through Paypal.

[Image lifted from Oversion's Weblog]


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Fault Lines - In Deep Water: A Way of Life in Peril

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I'll read in Toronto on July 12th,

as part of The Scream literary festival:

THE SCREAM IN HIGH PARK MAINSTAGE

Monday, July 12, 2010 - 7:00pm
THE DREAM STAGE, HIGH PARK
Cost: PWYC, $10 SUGGESTED

* Gil Adamson
* Tony Burgess
* Angela Carr
* Brian Joseph Davis
* Jeff Derksen
* Linh Dinh
* The Element Choir
* Michael Lista
* Kathleen Phillips
* Damian Rogers
* Ken Sparling
* Sherwin Tjia


The Scream Literary Festival culminates in the event that started it all 18 years ago: one night of performances guaranteed to delight and confound. Featuring: Gil Adamson, Angela Carr, Brian Joseph Davis, Jeff Derksen, Linh Dinh, The Element Choir, Michael Lista, Kathleen Phillips, Damian Rogers, Ken Sparling and Sherwin Tjia. Hosted by Misha Glouberman.




[I love Toronto and can't wait to be up there again. Kensington Market is one of my favorite neighborhoods.]

Historic Victory at Oakland Port – Israeli Ship Blocked from Unloading

OpEd News, 6/21/10:



In a historic action and unprecedented action today, over 800 labor and community activists blocked the gates of the Oakland docks in the early morning hours, prompting longshore workers to refuse to cross the picketlines where they were scheduled to unload an Israeli ship.

From 5:30 am to 9:30 am, a militant and spirited protest was held in front of four gates of the Stevedore Services of America, with people chanting non-stop, “Free, Free Palestine, Don’t Cross the Picket Line,” and “An injury to one is an injury to all, bring down the apartheid wall.”

Citing the health and safety provisions of their contract, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union workers refused to cross the picketline to report for duty.

Between 8:30 and 9:00 am, an emergency arbitration was conducted at the Maersk parking lot nearby, with an “instant” arbitrator called to the site to rule on whether the workers could refuse to cross the picketline without disciplinary measure.

At 9:15 a.m, after again reviewing the protests of hundreds at each gate, the arbitrator ruled in favor of the union that it was indeed unsafe for the workers to enter the docks.

[...]




[A small victory, yes, but still much more effective than most protests. On friday, during a lecture at Naropa, I made the simple obsersation that a protest is nothing unless it disrupts business as usual.]

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Free reading in Boulder

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Tuesday, June 15--7:30PM
Performing Arts Center
Naropa University's Arapahoe Campus
2130 Arapahoe Avenue


Thalia Field
Ross Gay
Joanne Kyger
Linh Dinh
Bobbie Louise Hawkins




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Head Fakes

As published on Counterpunch, Dissident Voice and Online Journal, 6/11/10:




American racists are living through tough times. The president is half black, half white, with a Muslim father. The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, is Indian-American, and Nikki Haley, who is of Sikh descent, may become the next governor of South Carolina. A state senator, Jake Knott, lamented, “We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.”

These racists are hounded and taunted by all these non-white faces, including of children on a mural in Prescott, AZ. City councilman Steve Blair griped, "I am not a racist individual, but I will tell you depicting a black guy in the middle of that mural, based upon who's president of the United States today and based upon the history of this community when I grew up, we had four black families—who I have been very good friends with for years—to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, 'Why?'" The simple answer is, Why not? Why can’t a face of any color be in the middle of a mural? Moreover, Blair must not be familiar with murals, as they are most prominent in poorer neighborhoods. The worse the pigs, in fact, the better the lipstick. Reflecting the folks who live there, these walls often feature black and brown faces. Perhaps it’s precisely this ghetto or barrio effect that bummed out councilman Blair?

To incense these racists further, Rima Fakih, an Arab American, has just been crowned Miss USA. “Miss Hezbollah,” they promptly dubbed her, a reference to her Lebanese heritage, with the always subtle Debbie Schlussel asking if the pageant has been “rigged for Muslima”?

It is a sad, ugly fact that achievements by non-whites in this country are often tainted by imputations of affirmative action, political correctness or some other forms of appeasement or condescension. When Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize, she was deemed a “journeyman novelist” who won only because of her race and gender. Likewise, a racist cannot accept that Rima Fakih is Miss USA simply because she is most beautiful, or at least most winsome that evening. Much more than literary merits, beauty is subjective, moreover, and to a racist, someone of the wrong race can never seem quite right.

So much brouhaha over this edition of Miss USA, when we don’t really care about the contest. Ratings have been low for years. By contrast, the national pageant in Italy lasts an entire week, with nightly, prime time telecasts. In 1996, Denny Mendez, a black woman born in the Dominican Republic, won with a unanimous vote from the judges and the vast majority of TV viewers. I’m not citing this to imply that racism does not exist in Italy, of course not, only to note that most Italians obviously had no problem with a black woman representing Italian beauty to the rest of the world. More recently, Italy had a beauty contest for nuns, I kid you not, and it was not a backroom promotion in some stupid bar. Its creator, father Antonio Rungi, explained, "Do you think that all nuns are old, shrunken and depressing? That's no longer true, thanks to the foreign girls injecting youth and vitality into our country: there are nuns from Africa and Latin America who are really very, very pretty. The Brazilians above all..."

Mendez has gone on to become a successful actress and model, unlike Rana Raslan, a beauty queen who had to leave her country to find acceptance. In 1999, Raslan became the first Arabic Miss Israel. Upon winning, she declared, "It doesn't matter whether I am an Arab or a Jew, we must prove to the world that we can live together.” A non-religious Muslim, Raslan lived in a mixed neighborhood and even attended Catholic school, "In my building alone there are Muslims, two Jewish families and an Arab Christian family. I've never had any problem here." In short, Raslan seemed the perfect symbol of an open and just society, moving forward. Benjamin Netanyahu crowed that her victory was "a clear expression of equality and coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Israel.”

But symbolic victories don’t negate reams of injustice. Even with Raslan, things quickly soured. At the Miss Universe, she wore a Star of David dress, which triggered death threats from outraged Muslims. (She had already been threatened by racist Jews.) With typical innocence, Raslan said, “I thought that was the symbol of the country, and that in the State of Israel—there were Arabs and Jews.” Returning home, she found few opportunities. “My house turned into a cage, a fortress. Suddenly no one came. I would sit and wait for invitations, for shows, but nothing.” To find modeling jobs, Raslan had to go to Italy, and it was in Europe where she also met her future husband, a millionaire from the United Arab Emirates. They now live in Egypt. Returning to Israel, Raslan encounters the same ugliness, “I haven't visited Israel for three months because of what I had gone through during security checks. I was asked questions in a vulgar manner, held for hours. They also searched me; I have no problem being treated like any other civilian, but there is a way to do so, with delicacy. I am a woman."

Beauty contests may seem meaningless, but they are loaded with symbolism. That’s why the outsized reactions to Rima Fakih and Rana Raslan. As America demonizes and wages wars against Muslims, it crowns a Muslim beauty queen, and our most public face, Obama, also has a Muslim name. He is also personable, articulate and smart, unlike his predecessor. That’s why his victory was greeted with jubilation from vast segments of our society. Fixated by the symbolism, we glossed over the substance. Here, finally, is a black president. My president is black. To the racist, this was deeply alarming, but Obama has not been the wrong choice because he is different, but because he has been more of the same. Consider the alternative, we basically had no choice. Now that the honeymoon is over, who can deny that we’re still living in the same country, with the same, endless wars, the same ineptitude to each crisis, and the same wrecked economy manipulated by the same banksters? We don’t have leaders, only masks who are well trained to deliver their lines, whether in the fake, aw-shucks style of George Bush, or the suave yet slightly street mannerism of Barack Obama, but the realities on the ground, on Main Street and at the front lines, haven’t changed. Unless something dramatic happens, more Americans will jump for yet another head fake at the next well-staged election.








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Ojos con piernas

Rebelión, 6/9/10:



Matando a los testigos

Emily Henochowicz perdió un ojo cuando un soldado israelí disparó una granada de gas lacrimógeno a su cara. De veintiún años, estudia arte en Cooper Union. En su blog, la encarnación de Emily, o su “ícono provisional”, como lo llama, es una pequeña que va vestida de un ojo. Un solo ojo, verde y juguetón, con piernas. Le dispararon en el ojo porque era un ojo, con piernas.

No hay nada nuevo en la matanza de testigos. En la última década, 11 periodistas han sido asesinados por fuerzas israelíes, incluido Cevdet Kiliclar, un periodista turco que recibió un disparo en la cabeza en la semana pasada, mientras fotografiaba a comandos israelíes que atacaban a activistas por la paz en la Flotilla de la Libertad. EE.UU. nunca condena esos crímenes porque es el mayor apoyo de Israel, y también porque hace lo mismo. Durante la invasión de Iraq en 2003, EE.UU. bombardeó la oficina de Al-Jazeera y el Hotel Palestine, matando en total a tres periodistas, mientras hería a cuatro. En 2005, soldados de EE.UU. dispararon contra un coche en el que iba una periodista italiana, Giuliana Sgrena, que acababa de ser rescatada por agentes italianos después de sufrir 28 días de secuestro.

Periodista de Il Manifesto, Sgrena había escrito sobre numerosos crímenes de EE.UU. en Iraq, como ser en Abu Ghraib, y el uso de fósforo blanco y bombas de racimo en Faluya. No estaba atraillada, era una periodista con conciencia. Por eso la atacaron, aunque sus disparos no mataron a Sgrena sino a Nicola Calipari, un agente especial. Como era de esperar, el Pentágono se absolvió culpando a los italianos por viajar demasiado rápido, con los focos apagados. Los ensayos balísticos demostraron posteriormente que iban a sólo 72 kilómetros por hora, y una fotografía mostró que no sólo llevaban los focos encendidos, sino que el coche iba iluminado por dentro, para poder realizar llamados telefónicos. Cuando sucedió el tiroteo, Sgrena iba hablando con su amigo. Además, no iban viajando por una ruta pública sino por una carretera segura reservada para funcionarios. El agente asesinado, Calipari, había trabajado en estrecha relación con los estadounidenses, e incluso estaba alojado con ellos, dentro de Camp Victory.

Sgrena era una periodista de tendencias izquierdistas rescatada por un gobierno derechista, dirigido por Berlusconi, un aliado de Bush. Independientemente de su orientación política, los italianos esperaban que su gobierno interviniera para salvar a uno de los suyos. Se rumoreaba que el rescate ascendía a entre seis y ocho millones de euros. Cuando soldados italianos fueron muertos en Iraq, no volvieron a casa en medio de la noche, lejos de la vista de los medios, ni enterrados en silencio. En su lugar, cada ataúd envuelto en la bandera, fue colocado en un camión de plataforma y llevado en un desfile por Roma.

Si Henochowicz fuera italiana, habría indignación en todo el espectro político. En su lugar, no oímos ni una palabra de Washington, y sólo una comedida declaración de pesar de su propia universidad, sin una condena, como si se tratara sólo de un accidente, no de un crimen.

En su blog, Henochowicz colocó un dibujo de un trozo de pastel con capas de activistas, “hombres obedientes y coléricos del ejército” y “gente con cámaras,” bajo una aplanadora. Así la porquería, la porquería de Israel, ha sido aplanada, y garrapiñada. Rachel Corrie, otra estudiante activista estadounidense, fue muerta por una aplanadora del ejército israelí.

Numerosos israelíes se deben enfurecer al ver a judíos que retornan, como Henochowicz y tantos otros, que se pronuncian por los palestinos, pero no es un asunto de judíos contra palestinos. Al ser un pueblo sin una patria durante dos mil años, los judíos se han pronunciado siempre contra la discriminación, siempre han propugnado un campo de actividad ecuánime para todos los ciudadanos, sin consideración a sus orígenes o raza. A menudo han clamado contra una sociedad basada en la raza, porque ese principio los perjudicaba, y relegaba a los judíos, y a cualquier otra minoría, a ser de segunda clase, pero Israel es exactamente eso, una sociedad basada en la raza.

El sionismo fue conceptualizado a fines del Siglo XIX. Después de innumerables pogromos y otras injusticias, ¿quién podía culpar a esos soñadores? Consideremos la situación judía en Rusia. Desde 1827 hasta 1856, la mayoría de los muchachos judíos eran reclutados a los 12 años, para ser entrenados por los militares hasta los 18, y luego eran llamados a servir en las filas del Ejército y mantenidos durante sólo 25 años. Para esos patriotas renuentes, la vida podía comenzar a los 43 años, si vivían hasta entonces. Durante la primera mitad del Siglo XIX, la mayoría de los rusos no llegaban a vivir 35 años. Para evitar esos secuestros patrocinados por el Estado, muchos padres judíos tenían que mutilar a sus hijos.

Luego vino el Holocausto, e Israel fue fundado en 1948 en Palestina controlada por los británicos. Hasta 750.000 palestinos fueron violentamente expulsados, aunque se quedaron suficientes para representar un quinto de la población, la misma proporción que existe actualmente. Su mayor tasa de nacimiento es contrarrestada por la inmigración de judíos de todo el globo.

Los palestinos que huyeron durante la Nakba, la Catástrofe de 1948, no pueden volver a su antigua patria, aunque cualquiera con sangre o fe judía puede llegar a ser ciudadano de Israel. Un árabe israelí ni siquiera puede casarse con alguien de Gaza o de Cisjordania y llevar a su cónyuge a Israel propiamente tal. Como muchas otras cosas, esto es justificado con motivos de seguridad, pero en realidad se basa en la raza. Una verdadera aberración entre las naciones modernas, Israel es un país inequívocamente étnico. Su himno nacional comienza con:

"Mientras en el corazón,

el alma de un judío anhele,

y hacia el Oriente,

a Sión, alguien mire,”

Si mi nombre fuera Aslam al-Farmawi, no creo que podría cantar eso con mucho sentimiento, aunque pueda portar un pasaporte israelí. Los árabes israelíes son nativos de ese país, y sin embargo son tratados, en el mejor de los casos, como ciudadanos de segunda clase, cómo lo fueron los judíos durante gran parte de su diáspora. Como los judíos, los palestinos son frecuentemente masacrados, pero por judíos. Muchos judíos tuvieron que vivir dentro de guetos, con puertas que se cerraban cada noche. Actualmente, muchos palestinos viven al exterior de muros, construidos por judíos. Sin embargo, hay una sola ventaja de ser árabe israelí. No hay que servir en el ejército. Considerando que las principales tareas de ese ejército son acosar y acribillar a árabes, no deja de ser razonable. También es mejor, absolutamente, que ser reclutado durante 31 años. Israel, ¡somos mejores que Nicolás I! ¡Israel, ámalo o es hora de viajar a Rusia zarista!

Durante las Cruzadas, cristianos en camino a combatir a los musulmanes mataban judíos al pasar. Ambos grupos eran, después de todo semitas, por lo tanto enemigos de la Cristiandad. Después que Europa trató de aniquilar finalmente a todos los judíos, ayudó a muchos sobrevivientes a retornar al Levante, para que pudieran combatir a los musulmanes hasta la eternidad, o por lo menos hasta el fin de los tiempos. Como para matar a dos pájaros de un tiro. Es una situación en la cual el cristianismo no puede perder. Según los cristianos fundamentalistas, la recuperación de Palestina por los judíos y la construcción de un nuevo templo en Jerusalén también allanaban el camino para el retorno del Mesías. Mientras esperamos que Jesús reaparezca, esos asesinatos continuarán interminablemente, porque Israel no puede hacer nada malo.





[Traducido del inglés por Germán Leyens]


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Smoke grenade thrown at Tel Aviv peace rally, Uri Avnery attacked

Promised Land, 6/5/10:


Political tension in Israel grows, as Left and Right protesters clash

Between 7,000 and 15,000 people (depending on who you ask) marched this evening in Tel Aviv to mark 43 years of occupation and to protest Israeli government policy. Following recent events, the demonstration, which was scheduled weeks in advance, turned into a protest against the attack on the Gaza flotilla.

While the march itself was relaxed for most parts, a few dozens of right-wing people held a counter-protest, and several of them tried to break into the Left’s rally. During the speech of a Hadash representative, a smoke grenade was thrown (There are conflicting reports as to who threw the grenade – the right or the left protesters). Later, Uri Avnery, the 87 years old former MK and peace activist, was attacked. Ynet reports that Avnery was rescued from the area in a car, with police escort. Right-wing activists also clashed with coffee shop goers in Tel aviv and shouted insults at locals.

[...]





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Kill a Turk and Rest

Uri Avnery at Counterpunch, 5/7/10:



ON THE high seas, outside territorial waters, the ship was stopped by the navy. The commandos stormed it. Hundreds of people on the deck resisted, the soldiers used force. Some of the passengers were killed, scores injured. The ship was brought into harbor, the passengers were taken off by force. The world saw them walking on the quay, men and women, young and old, all of them worn out, one after another, each being marched between two soldiers…

The ship was called “Exodus 1947”. It left France in the hope of breaking the British blockade, which was imposed to prevent ships loaded with Holocaust survivors from reaching the shores of Palestine. If it had been allowed to reach the country, the illegal immigrants would have come ashore and the British would have sent them to detention camps in Cyprus, as they had done before. Nobody would have taken any notice of the episode for more than two days.

But the person in charge was Ernest Bevin, a Labour Party leader, an arrogant, rude and power-loving British minister. He was not about to let a bunch of Jews dictate to him. He decided to teach them a lesson the entire world would witness. “This is a provocation!” he exclaimed, and of course he was right. The main aim was indeed to create a provocation, in order to draw the eyes of the world to the British blockade.

[...]




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Eyes, with Legs

As published on Common Dreams, Counterpunch and Online Journal, 6/6/10:




Emily Henochowicz lost an eye when an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister at her face. Twenty-one-years-old, she studies art at Cooper Union. On her blog, Emily’s avatar, or “tentative icon,” as she calls it, is a small girl wearing an eye suit. A single eye, green and playful, with legs. They shot her in the eye because she was an eye, with legs.

There is nothing novel about shooting witnesses. In the last decade, 11 journalists have been murdered by Israeli forces, including Cevdet Kiliclar, a Turkish who was shot in the head, last week, as he photographed Israeli commandos attacking peace activists on the Freedom Flotilla. The U.S. never condemns these crimes because it’s Israel’s biggest supporter, and also because it does the same. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, we bombed the office of Al Jazeera and shelled the Palestine Hotel, killing three journalists altogether, while injuring four. In 2005, U.S. troops shot at a car carrying Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, who had just been rescued by Italian agents after a 28-day hostage ordeal.

A journalist for Il Manifesto, Sgrena had written about numerous US crimes in Iraq, such as at Abu Ghraib and the use of white phosphorus and cluster bombs in Fallujah. She wasn’t imbedded, but a reporter with a conscience. For this, they targeted her, though the shooting didn’t kill Sgrena but Nicola Calipari, a special agent. As expected, the Pentagon absolved itself while blaming the Italians for traveling too fast, with their head lights off. Ballistic test later proved that they were going at only 45 miles an hour, while a photo showed that not only were their headlights on, but the car was even lit from the inside, to allow phone calls to be made. At the moment of the shooting, Sgrena was talking to her boyfriend. Further, they were not traveling on a public throughway but a secured road reserved for officials. The murdered agent, Calipari, had worked closely with the Americans, and was even quartered with them, inside Camp Victory.

Sgrena was a left leaning journalist rescued by a rightist government, headed by Berlusconi, a Bush ally. Whatever their politics, Italians expected their government to intervene to save one of their own. The ransom was rumored to be between six and eight million Euros. When Italian soldiers were killed in Iraq, they did not come home in the middle of the night, away from media scrutiny, then quietly buried. Instead, each flag-draped casket was placed on a flatbed truck and paraded through Rome.

If Henochowicz was Italian, there would be outrage from across the political spectrum. Instead, we hear nothing from Washington, and only a measured statement of regrets from her own university, with no condemnation, as if this was just a mishap, and not a crime.

On her blog, Henochowicz posted a drawing of a cake layered with activists, "obedient angry army men" and "camera people," topped by a bulldozer. So the mess, Israel's mess, has been bulldozed under, and topped with frosting. The bulldozer is also what killed Rachel Corrie, another American student activist.

It must infuriate many Israelis to see returning Jews, like Henochowicz and so many others, speaking out for Palestinians, but this is not about Jews vs. Palestinians. As a people without a homeland for two thousands years, Jews have always spoken out against discrimination, have always advocated for a level playing field for all citizens, irrespective of his origins or race. They have often railed against a race-based society, because this principle worked against them, and relegated Jews, and every other minority, to being second class, but a race-based society is exactly what Israel is.

Zionism was envisioned in the late 19th Century. After countless pogroms and other outrages, who could blame these dreamers? Take the Jewish situation in Russia. From 1827 to 1856, most Jewish boys were drafted at the age of 12, to be trained militarily until 18, when they were conscripted into the Army and kept for merely 25 years. For these reluctant patriots, life could begin at 43, if they lived that long. During the first half of the 19th century, most Russians never saw their 35th birthday. To avoid this state-sponsored kidnapping, many Jewish parents had to cripple their children.

Then came the Holocaust, and Israel was founded in 1948 in British controlled Palestine. Up to 750,000 Palestinians were violently expelled, yet enough remained to make up a fifth of the population, the same ratio that exists today. Their higher birthrate is counterbalanced by the immigration of Jews from across the globe.

Palestinians who fled during Nakba, the Catastrophe of 1948, cannot return to their former home, although anyone with Jewish blood or faith can become a citizen of Israel. An Israeli Arab cannot even marry someone from Gaza or the West Bank and bring his spouse into Israel proper. Like much else there, this is justified on security ground, but it’s really based on race. Truly an aberration among modern nations, Israel is an unequivocal ethnic homeland. Its national anthem begins:

As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And onward, towards the ends of the east,
An eye still gazes toward Zion.

If my name were Aslam al-Farmawi, I don’t think I could sing that with much feeling, though I may carry an Israeli passport. Israeli Arabs are native to that land, yet they are treated, at best, like second class citizens, just like Jews were throughout much of their diaspora. Like Jews, Palestinians are often massacred, but by Jews. Many Jews had to dwell inside ghettos, with the gates locked each night. These days, many Palestinians live outside walls, built by Jews. There is one advantage to being an Israeli Arab, however. You don’t have to serve in the military. Consider that this army’s main tasks are to harass and shoot Arabs, this is not unreasonable. It’s also better, absolutely, than to be drafted for 31 years. Israel, We’re Better Than Nicholas I! Israel, Love It Or Time Travel To Czarist Russia!

During the Crusades, Christians traveling to fight Muslims would kill Jews along the way. Both groups were Semites, after all, thus enemies of Christendom. After Europe tried to rid itself, finally, of all Jews, it helped many survivors to return to the Levant, where they could fight Muslims into eternity, or at least until the End Time. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. It’s a win-win situation for Christianity. According to Fundamentalist Christians, Jews reclaiming Palestine and building a new temple in Jerusalem also cleared the way for the Messiah's return. As we wait for Jesus to reappear, then, these killings will go on and on, because Israel can do no wrong.







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Cooper Union Student Loses Eye In West Bank Protest

Gothamist, 6/1/10:


A 21-year old American student at Cooper Union lost an eye after getting hit in the face with a tear gas projectile fired by an Israeli soldier during a demonstration at a crowded checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank yesterday. Emily Henochowicz (here's her blog) was part of a group protesting the deaths of at least nine pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. According to her fellow activists, Henochowicz is undergoing surgery to remove her left eye, and one protester, Sören Johanssen, says Israeli soldiers intentionally fired at her face:

"They clearly saw us," says Johanssen. "They clearly saw that we were internationals and it really looked as though they were trying to hit us. They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face." Israeli soldiers have previously killed and injured demonstrators with tear gas canisters.

[...]

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America's Complicity in Evil

PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS at Counterpunch, 6/1/10:



As I write at 5pm on Monday, May 31, all day has passed since the early morning reports of the Israeli commando attack on the unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, and there has been no response from President Obama except to say that he needed to learn “all the facts about this morning’s tragic events” and that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu had canceled his plans to meet with him at the White House. Thus has Obama made America complicit once again in Israel’s barbaric war crimes. Just as the US Congress voted to deep-six Judge Goldstone’s report on Israel’s war crimes committed in Israel’s January 2009 invasion of Gaza, Obama has deep-sixed Israel’s latest act of barbarism by pretending that he doesn’t know what has happened.

No one in the world will believe that Israel attacked ships in international waters carrying Israeli citizens, a Nobel Laureate, elected politicians, and noted humanitarians bringing medicines and building materials to Palestinians in Gaza, who have been living in the rubble of their homes without repairs or medicines since January 2009, without first clearing the crime with its American protector. Without America’s protection, Israel, a totally artificial state, could not exist. No one in the world will believe that America’s spy apparatus did not detect the movement of the Israeli attack force toward the aid ships in international waters in an act of piracy, killing 20, wounding 50, and kidnapping the rest. Obama’s pretense at ignorance confirms his complicity.

Once again the US government has permitted the Israeli state to murder good people known for their moral conscience. The Israeli state has declared that anyone with a moral conscience is an enemy of Israel, and every American president except Eisenhower and Carter has agreed.

[...]







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Henning Mankell, Swedish writer of mystery novels,

was among those on the Freedom Flotilla attacked by Israel. Corriere della Sera reports:



«CONTANO LE AZIONI» - Lo scrittore, 62 anni, si è imbarcato sulla flottiglia domenica, dopo un braccio di ferro di 48 ore con le autorità cipriote e turche. Mankell aveva spiegato la sua decisione di partecipare alla spedizione con il bisogno di dare sbocco concreto al proprio impegno a favore dei palestinesi: «Quelli che parlano di solidarietà non si rendono conto che quel che conta sono le azioni. È attraverso le azioni che noi dimostriamo di essere pronti a sostenere quello che riteniamo importante».


["Actions count"--The writer, 62 years old, was aboard the flotilla on Sunday, after head butting with Turkish and Cyprian authorities for 48 hours. Mankell had explained his decision to participate in the expedition as a need to do something concrete to back the Palestinians: "When people talk of solidarity they don't take into account that actions are what count. It's through actions that we show our readiness to support what we think is important."]





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Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

John Vidal in the Observer, 5/30/10:


The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

We reached the edge of the oil spill near the Nigerian village of Otuegwe after a long hike through cassava plantations. Ahead of us lay swamp. We waded into the warm tropical water and began swimming, cameras and notebooks held above our heads. We could smell the oil long before we saw it – the stench of garage forecourts and rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air.

The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. "We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots," said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. "This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.

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LAPD caught kicking cyclist at anti-BP protest

Daniel Tencer at RAW STORY, May 30th, 2010:



The Los Angeles Police Department has launched an internal investigation after one of its officers was caught on camera apparently kicking a cyclist during a protest against oil giant BP on Friday.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the incident took place on Hollywood Boulevard during a "Critical Mass" cycling event. Critical Masses -- which involve cyclists riding through the streets to call for cyclists' rights -- typically take place on the last Friday of every month. This particular event targeted BP for its role in the Gulf oil spill.

Video of the incident, which was posted to YouTube, shows what appears to be a police officer stepping out and kicking at a passing bicycle.

"Whoa, what the f*** was that for?" the unidentified cameraman can be heard saying. Moments later, the video shows two officers converge on the cameraman and take him down to the ground.

"Get up," one officer can be heard saying, as another says "Stay down."

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Civilians Under Attack by Israel

Free Gaza Team | 31 May 2010:


(Cyprus, June 1, 2010, 6:30 am) Under darkness of night, Israeli commandoes dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck. They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep. According to the live video from the ship, two have been killed, and 31 injured. Al Jazeera has just confirmed the numbers.

Streaming video shows the Israeli soldiers shooting at civilians, and our last SPOT beacon said, “HELP, we are being contacted by the Israelis.”

We know nothing about the other five boats. Israel says they are taking over the boats.

The coalition of Free Gaza Movement (FG), European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH), the Perdana Global Peace Organisation , Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden, and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza appeal to the international community to demand that Israel stop their brutal attack on civilians delivering vitally needed aid to the imprisoned Palestinians of Gaza and permit the ships to continue on their way.

The attack has happened in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of Israel, in direct violation of international law.

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US Apologizes to Billionaire Added to Terror No-fly List

Don't expect an apology unless you're a billionaire and chummy with Bill Clinton, or, who knows, maybe just a billion in the bank would be enough. ABC, 5/21/10:


Gilbert Chagoury Still Doesn't Know 'Why I Was Branded A Terrorist'

The United States has issued a written apology to a jet-setting billionaire businessman with close ties to former President Bill Clinton whose name was added to the no-fly list in the wake of the attempted Christmas day bombing of an American passenger plane.

The Department of Homeland Security has apologized to Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, seen here with former President Bill Clinton, for placing him on a no-fly list.

Gilbert Chagoury, 64, a Nigerian citizen of Lebanese descent, was pulled off a private jet Jan. 15 at Teterboro airport in New Jersey and detained for more than four hours after federal agents discovered his name was on the then-recently updated no-fly list.

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