50,000 in Alexandria, Egypt
10-12,000 in London
300 in Austin, TX
20,000 in DC today, maybe
45 in Fayetteville Arkansas
Stop this war!
Here's Al Vick's post on the vigil.
My photos on flickr are here.
And a report by local t.v. news, a bit hazy on details.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Friday, January 09, 2009
In case you need a Gaza soundtrack
Gaza has never been known as a central node in Palestinian cultural life, but here are a few musical offerings, from Gaza, and related to Gaza.
1. L’Ensemble Musical de Palestine, founded in Gaza in September 2004, plays traditional Palestinian folk tunes as well as numbers from the Arabic modernist canon (Sayed Darwish, Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, Umm Kalthoum). They have a very fine CD, called Gaza, available for downloading from iTunes, Amazon.com, and emusic, released by the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. Highly recommended.
2. You can listen to the Gaza rap group P.R.-The Palestinian Rapperz, on their myspace page. Their composition and flow are quite good, and they make interesting use of Arabic instruments in their mix. I have no idea how they are surviving the current onslaught. They were scheduled to perform at Al Helal Center, Gaza, on January 15.
Here's an article about them from Time magazine; there are more on their myspace page.
PR are featured in Jackie Salloum's documentary about Palestinian rap, Slingshot Hip-Hop.
Check out the Gaza rap group RFM too, on their myspace page. You can listen to the group and watch videos.
3. Here's an article about how well-loved Israeli popular music has been in Gaza, specifically music performed by Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern background, or Mizrahim. Particularly well-loved was Zehava Ben, an Israeli Jew of Moroccan background, who actually performed in Gaza sometime after 1994. Also mentioned is Dodo Yasmine.
In the 70s and 80s and into the 90s, when Gaza Palestinians in large numbers worked in Israel, in construction and agriculture and the like, it was not unusual for them to make friends with Israelis they worked with, and particularly Mizrahim, who after all are essentially Arab Jews. Since Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in August 2005, turning Gaza into a virtual prison, such connections of culture and friendship have become increasingly tenuous. But they are important to remember such ties between Gaza Palestinians and Israeli Jews, and especially Mizrahim.
4. I mentioned a couple Gaza-themed songs in an earlier post (Muslimgauze's "Curfew, Gaza," from the album Zul'm, and Shackelford's "Hamas Rule" from Soundboy Punishments.
I've found a couple more worth mentioning. From the Salt Lake City metal/sludge/grindcore band named Gaza, there is the track "Kasam Rocket," off the EP East. I presume (without knowing, really) that the names Gaza and Kasam Rocket are meant as provocations rather than any sign of support for Hamas. Then there is the experimental/dub track, "#1 in Gaza This Week," from the group Elders of Zion, off the album Dawn Refuses to Die (2002). (Download the track from Amazon.) It's very wild, dissonant and explosive. The album was released to coincide with the publication of band member Joel Schalit's book, The Anti-Capitalism Reader: Imagining a Geography of Opposition.
From Checkpoint 303, a collaborative project of "tunisian sound cutter SC MoCha" and "Bethlehem based palestinian sound catcher SC Yosh," there is the track "Gaza Calling" (download here). It features a phone call of a Gazan, trying to reach the United Nations, trying, in vain, to get some help. (Sound familiar?) Read electronic intifada's report on Checkpoint 303 here, and check out their webpage for more music and more info.
And then there is this brand new one, a rap number called "A Song for Gaza," from a rapper who seems to be based in the UAE, called Illuminarcy. Download it here. I love the blog's photo, which is a drawing of Umm Kalthoum saying "Bus al-wawa," (Kiss the booboo), which was a hit for Haifa Wehbe. Cracks me up. I like the sentiment of Illuminarcy's song but don't love the song itself. But you decide.
So....adjust your personal soundscape to the current crisis. Let me know if you think of other songs I should add.
1. L’Ensemble Musical de Palestine, founded in Gaza in September 2004, plays traditional Palestinian folk tunes as well as numbers from the Arabic modernist canon (Sayed Darwish, Muhammad Abdul Wahhab, Umm Kalthoum). They have a very fine CD, called Gaza, available for downloading from iTunes, Amazon.com, and emusic, released by the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation. Highly recommended.
2. You can listen to the Gaza rap group P.R.-The Palestinian Rapperz, on their myspace page. Their composition and flow are quite good, and they make interesting use of Arabic instruments in their mix. I have no idea how they are surviving the current onslaught. They were scheduled to perform at Al Helal Center, Gaza, on January 15.Here's an article about them from Time magazine; there are more on their myspace page.
PR are featured in Jackie Salloum's documentary about Palestinian rap, Slingshot Hip-Hop.
Check out the Gaza rap group RFM too, on their myspace page. You can listen to the group and watch videos.
3. Here's an article about how well-loved Israeli popular music has been in Gaza, specifically music performed by Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern background, or Mizrahim. Particularly well-loved was Zehava Ben, an Israeli Jew of Moroccan background, who actually performed in Gaza sometime after 1994. Also mentioned is Dodo Yasmine.
In the 70s and 80s and into the 90s, when Gaza Palestinians in large numbers worked in Israel, in construction and agriculture and the like, it was not unusual for them to make friends with Israelis they worked with, and particularly Mizrahim, who after all are essentially Arab Jews. Since Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in August 2005, turning Gaza into a virtual prison, such connections of culture and friendship have become increasingly tenuous. But they are important to remember such ties between Gaza Palestinians and Israeli Jews, and especially Mizrahim.
4. I mentioned a couple Gaza-themed songs in an earlier post (Muslimgauze's "Curfew, Gaza," from the album Zul'm, and Shackelford's "Hamas Rule" from Soundboy Punishments.
I've found a couple more worth mentioning. From the Salt Lake City metal/sludge/grindcore band named Gaza, there is the track "Kasam Rocket," off the EP East. I presume (without knowing, really) that the names Gaza and Kasam Rocket are meant as provocations rather than any sign of support for Hamas. Then there is the experimental/dub track, "#1 in Gaza This Week," from the group Elders of Zion, off the album Dawn Refuses to Die (2002). (Download the track from Amazon.) It's very wild, dissonant and explosive. The album was released to coincide with the publication of band member Joel Schalit's book, The Anti-Capitalism Reader: Imagining a Geography of Opposition.
From Checkpoint 303, a collaborative project of "tunisian sound cutter SC MoCha" and "Bethlehem based palestinian sound catcher SC Yosh," there is the track "Gaza Calling" (download here). It features a phone call of a Gazan, trying to reach the United Nations, trying, in vain, to get some help. (Sound familiar?) Read electronic intifada's report on Checkpoint 303 here, and check out their webpage for more music and more info.
And then there is this brand new one, a rap number called "A Song for Gaza," from a rapper who seems to be based in the UAE, called Illuminarcy. Download it here. I love the blog's photo, which is a drawing of Umm Kalthoum saying "Bus al-wawa," (Kiss the booboo), which was a hit for Haifa Wehbe. Cracks me up. I like the sentiment of Illuminarcy's song but don't love the song itself. But you decide.So....adjust your personal soundscape to the current crisis. Let me know if you think of other songs I should add.
Purple and Heart Kufiya: Courtesy Hot Topic (Big Hair is Extra)
This is absolutely perfect for wearing to all those rallies you are going to in support of the people of Gaza. The hearts will demonstrate your empathy for all the casualties of Israel's aggression.
Buy it at Hot Topic. (Thanks, Laine!)
Essential reading before you head out to the demo:
Naomi Klein, "Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction"
Rashid Khalidi, "What You Don't Know about Gaza"
Avi Shlaim, "How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe"
Saree Makdisi, "What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel?"
RIP Ron Asheton, Stooges' guitarist
Ron Asheton, original guitarist for The Stooges, was found dead on January 6.I love his guitar work on "I Wanna Be Your Dog."
But here's the hawgblawg angle. I remember reading in one of the Incredibly Strange Music volumes--but I can't find the source right now--that when Iggy was rehearsing with Ron Asheton, his brother Scott (drums) and Dave Alexander (bass), he used to put on an album of Bedouin music from the Sinai, to inspire them.
Strange influences...(I hope I can track down the actual source soon.)
Monday, January 05, 2009
Gaza crisis miscellaneous
I don't attempt in any way on this blog to do what very fine Middle East-related blogs like Abu Aardvark or Angry Arab or Informed Comment or Just World News (see my "Fellow Travelers" on the right) do--keep up a running account and commentary on current events. Yet when a crisis like what is going on in Gaza breaks out, I spend most of my time obsessing about it and reading, listening and watching the news. And so before I post on my usual, "frivolous," culture-related subjects, I feel somehow compelled to comment on what is going on. So to put my mind at rest, and before I move on to the normal if irregular flow of comment on kufiyas and music and whatnot, I do have a few things to say about Gaza.
First, one of my favorite commentators is Frank Rich. For the last few years, the virtually first thing I have done every Sunday is to get the New York Times off the front porch and go straight to Rich's column and read it over tea and, usually, pancakes. During the Bush years, the commentary has been bracing and incisive. But this Sunday, my disappoint over Rich was almost as great as my disappoint about Rachel Maddow's Gaza coverage. In the case of Rich, it was not what he said but what he didn't say. In a column that was a postmortem on all of Bush's failures over the past eight years and the horrific mess he has left the US in, he failed to address the effect that Israel's Gaza outrage is having--and will continue to have into the foreseeable future--on the US image in the Middle East. He does actually mention Gaza but he states that Bush's failure here was to push for elections in Palestine, which brought Gaza to power in a landslide. In other words, Bush's failure when it comes to Palestine is that he brought Hamas to power. Not his failure to do anything to limit Israel's ongoing colonization of the West Bank or its embargo of Gaza and its periodic deadly assaults. So Rich goes right along with the US media and political elite consensus on Gaza: it's all Hamas' fault. Not even a word about Palestinian civilian casualties.
I read this article later in the day, from Editor & Publisher, which makes clear that Rich's failure to say anything really, is quite in line with what the New York Times has been doing ever since the invasion began:
Israel launched its much-anticipated invasion of Gaza on Saturday. For over a week, U.S. media had provided largely one-sided coverage of the conflict, with little editorializing or commentary arguing against broader Israeli actions.
Most notably, after more than eight days of Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket launching in Gaza, The New York Times had produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists, and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere). The editorial, several days ago, did argue against the wisdom of a ground invasion - - but even though that invasion had become ever more likely all week the paper did not return to this subject.
Amazingly, the paper has kept that silence going in Sunday's and even Monday's paper, with no editorial or columnist comment on the Israeli invasion -- beyond a hawkish pro-invasion contribution by William Kristol. It's as if the Times is waiting for the invasion to be over and adapt its position to the outcome.
So where do you go if you want to follow the crisis and get decent information? (And feed the obsession...) I keep finding new sources. I mentioned some last week, and of course there are the blogs I mention in the first paragraph. The Guardian and The Independent are regularly producing good reporting and commentary, quite unlike anything we have access to in the US. And one of my favorite blogs, Kabobfest, has really been on top of this one, updating constantly. And as
One of my most recent discoveries is that you can watch Al Jazeera English's streaming broadcasts, in real time, on the internet. You can go to their website and do this, but better yet, download the Livestation application (which works on PC and Mac--yay!) and you can watch it, full screen. If you are interested at all in Gaza, and don't have satellite, you really want to do this. Why? Because Al Jazeera is the only international network with reporters inside the Gaza Strip. So unlike watching all the other networks, where the reporters are standing around on the border with Gaza and watching the bombing taking place from the position of the aggressor, from Al Jazeera you get actual footage and reports from the inside. It's really horrific and appalling and infuriating and tear-inducing. You must watch it!
What I wonder sometimes, however, if all this information that is available--if you know where to get it--doesn't turn us into, well, passive observers. I wonder whether I don't spend way too much time trying to stay up to date and read and watch and listen to all the commentary. As opposed to, say writing letters to the editor, trying to convince others who know next to nothing about what is going on, or organizing protests. I have to admit, I have trouble keeping myself away from the (not mainstream US) media coverage...Don't get too hooked.
On the other hand I don't have much trouble staying away from the mainstream media, because every time I watch or read, I am infuriated. Angry Arab is doing a great job of exposing how horrible a job Taghreed El Khodary is doing for the New York Times. Just because an "Arab" is reporting doesn't mean it isn't basically Israeli propaganda. I had the unhappy experience of watching Octavia Nasr comment on CNN for a few minutes yesterday. She is unbelievably dumb, and does nothing to correct the most basic, Orientalist, anti-Arab prejudices of the anchors.
But here is a brief ray of hope: check out this report on CBS, where they do a phone interview a Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, who is working in a Gaza Hospital. He says it's hell, like Dante's Inferno. That he's seen only one military casualty. That fifty percent of the 2500 wounded are women and children, and so on. (I should add that if you watch Al Jazeera English, you are likely to see, as I did, an on-camera interview with Mads Gilbert, at the hospital, with a nonstop stream of wounded showing up. Much more vivid, much more compelling. But then, Israel won't let foreign correspondents into Gaza, to better manage the spin of the news. And none of them are complaining.)
I learned about this CBS broadcast from Juan Cole's Informed Comment. He suggests that you take this information about civilian casualties and write your Senators and Congresspeople and President. He also gives a link making it easy to do so. I took a bit of time off from watching the news flow and sent notes to Bush and Sens. Lincoln and Prior and Congressman Boozman. Please do the same and write your elected representatives.
(I promise, more future posts on music and culture and the like. But with a political flavor...)
UPDATE: I just found this youtube video of an Al Jazeera interview with the Norwegian physician, from Dec. 31.
First, one of my favorite commentators is Frank Rich. For the last few years, the virtually first thing I have done every Sunday is to get the New York Times off the front porch and go straight to Rich's column and read it over tea and, usually, pancakes. During the Bush years, the commentary has been bracing and incisive. But this Sunday, my disappoint over Rich was almost as great as my disappoint about Rachel Maddow's Gaza coverage. In the case of Rich, it was not what he said but what he didn't say. In a column that was a postmortem on all of Bush's failures over the past eight years and the horrific mess he has left the US in, he failed to address the effect that Israel's Gaza outrage is having--and will continue to have into the foreseeable future--on the US image in the Middle East. He does actually mention Gaza but he states that Bush's failure here was to push for elections in Palestine, which brought Gaza to power in a landslide. In other words, Bush's failure when it comes to Palestine is that he brought Hamas to power. Not his failure to do anything to limit Israel's ongoing colonization of the West Bank or its embargo of Gaza and its periodic deadly assaults. So Rich goes right along with the US media and political elite consensus on Gaza: it's all Hamas' fault. Not even a word about Palestinian civilian casualties.
I read this article later in the day, from Editor & Publisher, which makes clear that Rich's failure to say anything really, is quite in line with what the New York Times has been doing ever since the invasion began:
Israel launched its much-anticipated invasion of Gaza on Saturday. For over a week, U.S. media had provided largely one-sided coverage of the conflict, with little editorializing or commentary arguing against broader Israeli actions.
Most notably, after more than eight days of Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket launching in Gaza, The New York Times had produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists, and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere). The editorial, several days ago, did argue against the wisdom of a ground invasion - - but even though that invasion had become ever more likely all week the paper did not return to this subject.
Amazingly, the paper has kept that silence going in Sunday's and even Monday's paper, with no editorial or columnist comment on the Israeli invasion -- beyond a hawkish pro-invasion contribution by William Kristol. It's as if the Times is waiting for the invasion to be over and adapt its position to the outcome.
So where do you go if you want to follow the crisis and get decent information? (And feed the obsession...) I keep finding new sources. I mentioned some last week, and of course there are the blogs I mention in the first paragraph. The Guardian and The Independent are regularly producing good reporting and commentary, quite unlike anything we have access to in the US. And one of my favorite blogs, Kabobfest, has really been on top of this one, updating constantly. And as
One of my most recent discoveries is that you can watch Al Jazeera English's streaming broadcasts, in real time, on the internet. You can go to their website and do this, but better yet, download the Livestation application (which works on PC and Mac--yay!) and you can watch it, full screen. If you are interested at all in Gaza, and don't have satellite, you really want to do this. Why? Because Al Jazeera is the only international network with reporters inside the Gaza Strip. So unlike watching all the other networks, where the reporters are standing around on the border with Gaza and watching the bombing taking place from the position of the aggressor, from Al Jazeera you get actual footage and reports from the inside. It's really horrific and appalling and infuriating and tear-inducing. You must watch it!
What I wonder sometimes, however, if all this information that is available--if you know where to get it--doesn't turn us into, well, passive observers. I wonder whether I don't spend way too much time trying to stay up to date and read and watch and listen to all the commentary. As opposed to, say writing letters to the editor, trying to convince others who know next to nothing about what is going on, or organizing protests. I have to admit, I have trouble keeping myself away from the (not mainstream US) media coverage...Don't get too hooked.
On the other hand I don't have much trouble staying away from the mainstream media, because every time I watch or read, I am infuriated. Angry Arab is doing a great job of exposing how horrible a job Taghreed El Khodary is doing for the New York Times. Just because an "Arab" is reporting doesn't mean it isn't basically Israeli propaganda. I had the unhappy experience of watching Octavia Nasr comment on CNN for a few minutes yesterday. She is unbelievably dumb, and does nothing to correct the most basic, Orientalist, anti-Arab prejudices of the anchors.
But here is a brief ray of hope: check out this report on CBS, where they do a phone interview a Norwegian doctor, Mads Gilbert, who is working in a Gaza Hospital. He says it's hell, like Dante's Inferno. That he's seen only one military casualty. That fifty percent of the 2500 wounded are women and children, and so on. (I should add that if you watch Al Jazeera English, you are likely to see, as I did, an on-camera interview with Mads Gilbert, at the hospital, with a nonstop stream of wounded showing up. Much more vivid, much more compelling. But then, Israel won't let foreign correspondents into Gaza, to better manage the spin of the news. And none of them are complaining.)
I learned about this CBS broadcast from Juan Cole's Informed Comment. He suggests that you take this information about civilian casualties and write your Senators and Congresspeople and President. He also gives a link making it easy to do so. I took a bit of time off from watching the news flow and sent notes to Bush and Sens. Lincoln and Prior and Congressman Boozman. Please do the same and write your elected representatives.
(I promise, more future posts on music and culture and the like. But with a political flavor...)
UPDATE: I just found this youtube video of an Al Jazeera interview with the Norwegian physician, from Dec. 31.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Celebrities among the tens of thousands of Europeans demonstrating against Israeli assault on Gaza
Annie Lennox (C), Bianca Jagger (2nd R) and British politician George Galloway (L) march through London with thousands of protestors in London, Britain, 03 January 2009. A series of demonstrations took place across Britain against the Israeli air strikes on Gaza. The protests are being held at 18 locations including Portsmouth, Manchester, Hull, London and Glasgow. EPA/ANDY RAIN
In London, today, among the 10-12,000 demonstrators were Bianca Jagger, Annie Lennox (ex-Eurythmics) and comedian Alexei Sayle, according to the New York Times.
For the record, Bianca Jagger's daughter Jade donated money at charity event for Palestinian children sponsored by the Hoping Foundation back in May 2007. So apparently critical thinking on Palestine-Israel runs in the family, or at least the female side of it.
You gotta love it, demonstrators threw shoes at 10 Downing St. (Britain's government is part of Israel's cover too, along with the US). And there were lots of kufiyas. Please note the kufiya on the woman standing next to Annie, below, and the Palestinian flag.
EPA/ANDY RAINPostscript: about 1/2 hour after I first posted this.
'In Paris, more than 20,000 demonstrators, many wearing Arab keffiyeh headscarves, chanted slogans like "Israel murderer!"' (Reuters, via NYT). And Israeli ground troops are now headed in...
'In Paris, more than 20,000 demonstrators, many wearing Arab keffiyeh headscarves, chanted slogans like "Israel murderer!"' (Reuters, via NYT). And Israeli ground troops are now headed in...
Friday, January 02, 2009
Another Justin Timberlake Kufiyaspotting
Check out this video, "Jizz in My Pants," from The Lonely Island. Justin Timberlake appears throughout, as the d.j., and he is wearing one of those trompe l'oeil kufiya t-shirts. (Thanks, Laine.) You can see the t-shirt best at 2:24. (The video aired on Dec. 6 on SNL.)
Justin, of course, has been kufiyaspotted before, at the 2007 MTV Music Awards.
Any chance he has any positive views of the Palestinians?
Members of The Lonely Island wear faux kufiyas on occasion, too. I can't say I'm too fond of this song. Lame juvenile humor is how I see it.
Justin, of course, has been kufiyaspotted before, at the 2007 MTV Music Awards.
Any chance he has any positive views of the Palestinians?
Members of The Lonely Island wear faux kufiyas on occasion, too. I can't say I'm too fond of this song. Lame juvenile humor is how I see it.
Hollywood stars dissociate themselves from diamond store connected to Israeli settlements
One reason I make an effort to kufiyaspot celebrities is that I don't think that stars are inevitably and necessarily idiots. We simply can't assume that when a celebrity like Cameron Diaz puts on a kufiya, it is "just" a matter of fashion, and could not be in any way political. (And in fact I have argued that on at least one occasion when Cameron was kufiyaspotted, there might well have been a kind of political gesture.)
This report would seem to bear out my claim. It also provides a bit of New Years cheer, a bit of relief from the Gaza onslaught which I can't seem to pull myself away from. I found this out courtesy of the invaluable Kabobfest, who got it from al-Arabiya. I reproduce the al-Arabiya article in full below. More comments follow.
Actresses refuse to be linked to 'unethical' business
Hollywood stars shun pro-Israeli diamond store
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Hollywood stars have called for their pictures to be removed from the website of a diamond company that is associated with settlement expansion in Israel and human rights violations in Africa.
The diamond stores owned by Jewish-American billionaire Lev Leviev had to remove pictures of several actresses after they complained of being linked to a company that funds settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories, a statement issued by the pro-Palestinian human rights group Adalah- New York said.
The actresses include Salma Hayek, Sharon Stone, Whitney Houston, Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Andie Macdowell, and Lucy Liu. The celebrities were contacted by the rights group Adalah and the New York based 'Jews Against the Occupation' and asked them to distance themselves from a corporation that supports the Zionist project.
The organizations sent letters to the actresses and held negotiations with their representatives to inform them of the human rights violations Leviev is involved in in Palestine and South Africa. As a result the actresses demanded that pictures of them wearing his diamonds were removed from the company's website.
In October, the ambassador of Oxfam International aid agency Kristin Davis demanded that the Leviev's company remove her pictures from its website.
In June, UNICEF announced its refusal to receive any future donations from Leviev for his involvement in building settlements in the West Bank.
UNICEF justified its decision by stating that it does not receive donations from any parties in conflicts.
"We are gratified that these stars have joined UNICEF, Oxfam and a growing list of others who have distanced themselves from Leviev over his companies’ settlement construction in violation of international law in Palestine, and rights abuses in Angola and Namibia," Ethan Heitner from Adalah-NY said.
"Some immediately expressed concern when we explained that Leviev was using their photos to whitewash his unethical business practices," he said, adding "their actions show that Leviev’s wealth and diamonds can’t buy impunity."
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid.)
Go here for Adalah-NY's press release on its successful campaign. Arabiyah does not quite get the story right. According to Adalah, it contacted the artists listed above, and representatives of four of them (the identity of the four is not given) contacted Leviev asking to have their photos removed from the celebrity section of the Leviev website (www.leviev.com). Following the complaints, Leviev's staff removed the entire celebrity section. (Adalah had not yet contacted the following stars whose photos were also up on the site: HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Ginnifer Goodwin, Katharine McPhee, Teri Hatcher, Lauren Graham, Estelle Lefebure, Zara and Dita Von Teese.)
I wish I knew which four! I'm guessing "yes" on Salma Hayek (whose father is of Lebanese descent, and who was simply terrific in the Mexican film version of Midaq Alley, based on Naguib Mahfouz's celebrated novel) and "no" on Sharon Stone, who not so long ago visited Israel and was fawning all over Shimon Peres.
But who knows? The point is, pro-Palestinian groups contacted celebrities and persuaded them to make a positive political gesture.
(And if the motivation had more to do with Leviev's nefarious Africa activities than with his involvement in settlements, so what?)
Bravo, Adalah-NY and Jews Against the Occupation.
Go here for Adalah-NY's very thorough report on Leviev and his extensive involvement in illegal settlement activity.
This report would seem to bear out my claim. It also provides a bit of New Years cheer, a bit of relief from the Gaza onslaught which I can't seem to pull myself away from. I found this out courtesy of the invaluable Kabobfest, who got it from al-Arabiya. I reproduce the al-Arabiya article in full below. More comments follow.
Actresses refuse to be linked to 'unethical' business
Hollywood stars shun pro-Israeli diamond store
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Hollywood stars have called for their pictures to be removed from the website of a diamond company that is associated with settlement expansion in Israel and human rights violations in Africa.
The diamond stores owned by Jewish-American billionaire Lev Leviev had to remove pictures of several actresses after they complained of being linked to a company that funds settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories, a statement issued by the pro-Palestinian human rights group Adalah- New York said.
The actresses include Salma Hayek, Sharon Stone, Whitney Houston, Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Andie Macdowell, and Lucy Liu. The celebrities were contacted by the rights group Adalah and the New York based 'Jews Against the Occupation' and asked them to distance themselves from a corporation that supports the Zionist project.
The organizations sent letters to the actresses and held negotiations with their representatives to inform them of the human rights violations Leviev is involved in in Palestine and South Africa. As a result the actresses demanded that pictures of them wearing his diamonds were removed from the company's website.
In October, the ambassador of Oxfam International aid agency Kristin Davis demanded that the Leviev's company remove her pictures from its website.
In June, UNICEF announced its refusal to receive any future donations from Leviev for his involvement in building settlements in the West Bank.
UNICEF justified its decision by stating that it does not receive donations from any parties in conflicts.
"We are gratified that these stars have joined UNICEF, Oxfam and a growing list of others who have distanced themselves from Leviev over his companies’ settlement construction in violation of international law in Palestine, and rights abuses in Angola and Namibia," Ethan Heitner from Adalah-NY said.
"Some immediately expressed concern when we explained that Leviev was using their photos to whitewash his unethical business practices," he said, adding "their actions show that Leviev’s wealth and diamonds can’t buy impunity."
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid.)
Go here for Adalah-NY's press release on its successful campaign. Arabiyah does not quite get the story right. According to Adalah, it contacted the artists listed above, and representatives of four of them (the identity of the four is not given) contacted Leviev asking to have their photos removed from the celebrity section of the Leviev website (www.leviev.com). Following the complaints, Leviev's staff removed the entire celebrity section. (Adalah had not yet contacted the following stars whose photos were also up on the site: HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Ginnifer Goodwin, Katharine McPhee, Teri Hatcher, Lauren Graham, Estelle Lefebure, Zara and Dita Von Teese.)
I wish I knew which four! I'm guessing "yes" on Salma Hayek (whose father is of Lebanese descent, and who was simply terrific in the Mexican film version of Midaq Alley, based on Naguib Mahfouz's celebrated novel) and "no" on Sharon Stone, who not so long ago visited Israel and was fawning all over Shimon Peres.
But who knows? The point is, pro-Palestinian groups contacted celebrities and persuaded them to make a positive political gesture.
(And if the motivation had more to do with Leviev's nefarious Africa activities than with his involvement in settlements, so what?)
Bravo, Adalah-NY and Jews Against the Occupation.
Go here for Adalah-NY's very thorough report on Leviev and his extensive involvement in illegal settlement activity.
The difference between US and UK coverage of Gaza
These two headlines about sum it up.
Britain's The Guardian, yesterday: "Israel defies peacemakers and prepares for invasion."
From today's New York Times: "In a Broadening Offensive, Israel Steps Up Diplomacy."
The Guardian goes on to tell us, "Israel has defied a formidable international consensus in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza by opting to continue its unprecedentedly fierce air attacks on Hamas targets and stepping up preparations for a possible ground offensive." Read the rest of the article here.
Meanwhile, the New York Times tells us, "With Israeli troops and tanks massing along the border with Gaza in preparation for a possible ground invasion, Israel also pursued diplomatic avenues to explain its positions." The article does go on to tell us that the EU is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and that Sarkozy is pushing for the same thing, but the piece is spun entirely from the point of view of Israel and the efforts of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to argue that Israel needs more time to carry out its military operations in Gaza. That is, what matters most for the New York Times is Israel's position, and the "formidable international consensus" apparently matters not one bit.
"Diplomacy," for the New York Times, means arguing for more time for war. War is peace.
Britain's The Guardian, yesterday: "Israel defies peacemakers and prepares for invasion."
From today's New York Times: "In a Broadening Offensive, Israel Steps Up Diplomacy."
The Guardian goes on to tell us, "Israel has defied a formidable international consensus in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza by opting to continue its unprecedentedly fierce air attacks on Hamas targets and stepping up preparations for a possible ground offensive." Read the rest of the article here.
Meanwhile, the New York Times tells us, "With Israeli troops and tanks massing along the border with Gaza in preparation for a possible ground invasion, Israel also pursued diplomatic avenues to explain its positions." The article does go on to tell us that the EU is calling for an immediate ceasefire, and that Sarkozy is pushing for the same thing, but the piece is spun entirely from the point of view of Israel and the efforts of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to argue that Israel needs more time to carry out its military operations in Gaza. That is, what matters most for the New York Times is Israel's position, and the "formidable international consensus" apparently matters not one bit.
"Diplomacy," for the New York Times, means arguing for more time for war. War is peace.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Editorial from Middle East Report on Gaza
The current scene of bombed-out neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip resembles the destruction Israel wrought in Lebanon during the summer of 2006. (Hatem Omar/MaanImages)Just published online, this commentary from the editors of Middle East Report (of which I am one) will appear in the next issue (#250).
Here's an excerpt:
Another path is possible, of course. Obama could quietly drop US rejection of the 2006 Palestinian election results, and work to help the Palestinians form a national unity government. As the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is advocating, he could call the siege of Gaza by its rightful name -- collective punishment -- and demand that it cease. He could throw the weight of Washington behind Security Council action toward that end, and toward a genuine halt to settlement and separation wall construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. He could enforce the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, and terminate US supply to Israel of F-16s and Apache helicopters, paid for with US military aid dollars, because they have been used to harm civilians in the attack on Gaza. The measure of Barack Obama will be how far, if at all, he travels toward such a dramatic transformation of US policy on the question of Palestine.
Is it true that “change is coming” when Obama enters the White House? We hope so. Yet the conventional pro-Israel tilt of his campaign indicates otherwise, as does the composition of his foreign policy crew. Obama appears poised to content himself with more energetic US engagement in the sort of flawed negotiations of the Clinton years, the sort that put ending the occupation last, as if the developments of the Bush years had not rendered that approach utterly untenable.
Please, Mr. President-elect, surprise us.
Read the entire commentary here.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Rachel Maddow: A Big Fat Idiot on Gaza
I used to be a big fan of Rachel Maddow. Until this broadcast from last night. As my comrade Laurie King noted, Rachel has "drunk the kool aid on Gaza." I guess I should have known earlier, I've been told that Rachel has expressed support for the Israeli position on Gaza previously.
I wish I had more time to analyze and critique this entire segment. It is so wrong, so insidious, on so many fronts. At the same time it is entirely conventional US pro-Israel propaganda. Just look at the image in the embedded file, which conveys very graphically the fact that Hamas/Palestinians are terrorists, scary, the equivalent of those who cut off innocent Jewish and American heads with swords.
Maddow's expose starts with a map of Israel, surrounded by a sea of hostile Arabs, who have always threatened it, from without, and more recently from within. No mention of the fact that the "within" was the West Bank and Gaza, occupied in 1967. No mention at all, throughout the entire segment, that Palestinians lived under military occupation. No mention of the suffering Gazans have endured under the embargo Israel (with US and EU support) put in place after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006.
And she repeats that tired but ubiquitous formula, the "cycle" of violence. It's not a "cycle" when one side is pummeling the other with its warships, with F-16s and Apache helicopters and the latest in "smart bombs," is getting set to send in tanks, and the other has at the most some rockets that inflict a lot of fear and terror but are not major killers. (Mind you, I am totally opposed to the stupid Palestinian deployment of rockets as a strategy. Or is it tactic?)
Maddow's guest, NBC Middle East "expert" Richard Engel, can't even explain the basic facts about the elections, that the Palestinian Prime Minister was Hamas member Ismail Haniyeh and the Parliamentary was held by Hamas and that the Palestinian Authority essentially was Hamas until President Abbas (illegally) ousted them in June 2007.
Engel does say a couple things that are right. Egypt and Saudi Arabia gave Israel the green light for the assault on Gaza. And he says that if Israel eliminates all of Hamas' rockets, that's good for "moderate" (i.e. slavishly pro-US) Arab states--IF there isn't a massacre of Palestinians. Thus showing more sympathy for Palestinians than cute Rachel. (Although isn't the massacre going on right now, whether through outright killing and more "subtle" means like starvation.)
I hope someone will give this execrable piece of phony news the full treatment it deserves. I consider it more dangerous than Limbaugh and O'Reilly and the rest of the right-wing commentators, because Rachel is such a hero for the liberal left. And deservedly so. But she needs to have her feet put to the fire on this issue.
Glenn Greenwald on the current concensus
"One can travel from the farthest right fringe of the GOP to the heart of the Democratic Party leadership and hear exactly the same thing: Israel is always right. Israel must not be criticized. Israel never bears any blame. Any action taken by Israel is justified. No matter the situation, that just gets repeated over and over like some hypnotic bipartisan mantra. Meanwhile, American citizens overwhelmingly -- 71% -- want their Government to be "even-handed" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet that view is simply ignored, disregarded, not even viable for any American mainstream political leader to express."
It's a "concensus" of the elite and the chattering classes. But if the 71% don't express any public desire for even-handedness, there is no hope for Palestinians. Or US relations with the Middle East.
Read the entire article, which exposes Marty Peretz as a psychopath, and whose views are essentially supported by the US political establishment, here.
It's a "concensus" of the elite and the chattering classes. But if the 71% don't express any public desire for even-handedness, there is no hope for Palestinians. Or US relations with the Middle East.
Read the entire article, which exposes Marty Peretz as a psychopath, and whose views are essentially supported by the US political establishment, here.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Kufiyaspotting #44: AnnaLynne McCord
Thanks to Rochelle, who alerted me to this. AnnaLynne McCord is on the cast of the The CW's new 90210 spinoff. She also appeared in the fifth season of Nip/Tuck.Rochelle found this on the very snarky Go Fug Yourself blog. Here's what it has to say about McCord's fashion sense:
Those tights + those boots + that scarf = accessories overload, dude. Pick one and stick with it. Not that I would be able to advise you which to choose, as each of your accessories is problematic for me:
1) The scarf: haven't you seen that scarf on nearly every person in town under 35 at some point in the last three years? Including Lauren Conrad. Just take ten minutes to think about that. But, of course, it's just a scarf. A scarf alone can not entirely constitute a fashion crime. Unless, I guess, that IS all you're wearing.
(Points 2 & 3 critique the tights and boots.)
Go Fug Yourself is full of evidence that McCord's fashion sense is not, er, exemplary. And what do you make of this outfit? It's a bit bellydance, no? (Apparently she is trying to look pirate-ish, which is not really that farfetched. Think Barbary Pirates.)
(I've not yet spotted Lauren Conrad, of the MTV show The Hills, in kufiya. But I'll keep looking.)
Where kufiyas really mean something: demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza in Dubai
I'm sure it's the same at all the demonstrations in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. I found this article courtesy of Angry Arab. Kufiyas were ubiquitous at the protest held yesterday at the Palestinian Embassy in Dubai. Of course, the police would not let demonstrators take their protest into the street.
I couldn't grab any of the photos, so go to the original, and check out the photos. Notice that they are all wearing black-and-white kufiyas which symbolize Palestinian nationalism. Note that just a few days ago, Hamas in Gaza was trying to stomp out signs of support for Fateh, which include black-and-white kufiyas! Hamas supporters wear red-and-white ones.
“They wouldn’t let us go onto the street and forced us to leave and to stop,” Mrs al Masri said, wearing a niqab with a kaffiyeh draped around her shoulders, shortly after confronting the police. “They said it’s not allowed and I asked them why. They said they would arrest us.”...
“Allah-uh-akbar” the crowd shouted, as a young girl with a kaffiyeh around her shoulders held up a sign pleading for an end to Israel’s “war crimes”. Other placards held by the crowd read “Stop the Massacre” and “We are all Gaza”....
Dressed in a dishdash, with a kaffiyeh around his shoulders, Hani al Saadi, from Yemen, came to express solidarity with his “brothers”.
I couldn't grab any of the photos, so go to the original, and check out the photos. Notice that they are all wearing black-and-white kufiyas which symbolize Palestinian nationalism. Note that just a few days ago, Hamas in Gaza was trying to stomp out signs of support for Fateh, which include black-and-white kufiyas! Hamas supporters wear red-and-white ones.
“They wouldn’t let us go onto the street and forced us to leave and to stop,” Mrs al Masri said, wearing a niqab with a kaffiyeh draped around her shoulders, shortly after confronting the police. “They said it’s not allowed and I asked them why. They said they would arrest us.”...
“Allah-uh-akbar” the crowd shouted, as a young girl with a kaffiyeh around her shoulders held up a sign pleading for an end to Israel’s “war crimes”. Other placards held by the crowd read “Stop the Massacre” and “We are all Gaza”....
Dressed in a dishdash, with a kaffiyeh around his shoulders, Hani al Saadi, from Yemen, came to express solidarity with his “brothers”.
"Arab Money." Where does it go? It buys jewels for Condi
I plan to put up a long over-due post on Busta Rhymes' song "Arab Money," but here's an initial foray. Here is where the Arab money goes--not to help impoverished Gazans but to pay for extravagant gifts to lavish on the imperial masters and overlords. Apparently they pay Condi to keep her eyes off Gaza. Last night she attended Legally Blonde the Musical. It's not that there is any crisis in the Middle East to attend to, right? (Read the entire article here.)
Arabs lavish jewels on Secretary of State Rice
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, (AP)
President George W. Bush's foreign policies may be unpopular in the Middle East, but Arab leaders showered his top diplomat with jewelry worth far more than a quarter of a million dollars last year. While Bush himself didn't fare nearly as well, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raked in at least $316,000 in gem-encrusted baubles from the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia alone, making her one of top recipients among U.S. officials of gifts from foreign heads of state and government and their aides in 2007.
Condi and lapdog Abdallah II
Arabs lavish jewels on Secretary of State Rice
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 22, 2008
WASHINGTON, (AP)
President George W. Bush's foreign policies may be unpopular in the Middle East, but Arab leaders showered his top diplomat with jewelry worth far more than a quarter of a million dollars last year. While Bush himself didn't fare nearly as well, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raked in at least $316,000 in gem-encrusted baubles from the kings of Jordan and Saudi Arabia alone, making her one of top recipients among U.S. officials of gifts from foreign heads of state and government and their aides in 2007.
Condi and lapdog Abdallah IIIn January, Jordan's King Abdullah II gave Rice an emerald and diamond necklace, ring, bracelet and earrings estimated to be worth $147,000, according to the State Department's annual inventory of such items released Monday just in time for Christmas.
The king and his wife, Queen Rania, also gave Rice a less expensive necklace and earrings along with a jewelry box valued at $4,630, the document shows.
Not to be outdone, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia presented Rice with a ruby and diamond necklace with matching earrings, bracelet and ring worth $165,000 in July. The inventory also includes a $170,000 flower petal motif necklace the Saudi monarch gave to Rice in 2005, which the department says was not previously disclosed.
From the same Arab leaders, Bush received just over $100,000 in gifts in 2007, the list shows.
Other gifts include an $85,000 sapphire and diamond jewelry set and $10,000 piece of artwork depicting a desert scene of bedouins, camels and a tent made of gold given to first lady Laura Bush by Saudi King Abdullah.
Unfortunately for the Bushes, Rice and other recipients, they won't be able to enjoy the gifts as they have been turned over to the General Services Administration and government archives in accordance with federal law, which bars officials from accepting personal presents in almost all circumstances.
The king and his wife, Queen Rania, also gave Rice a less expensive necklace and earrings along with a jewelry box valued at $4,630, the document shows.
Not to be outdone, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia presented Rice with a ruby and diamond necklace with matching earrings, bracelet and ring worth $165,000 in July. The inventory also includes a $170,000 flower petal motif necklace the Saudi monarch gave to Rice in 2005, which the department says was not previously disclosed.
From the same Arab leaders, Bush received just over $100,000 in gifts in 2007, the list shows.
Other gifts include an $85,000 sapphire and diamond jewelry set and $10,000 piece of artwork depicting a desert scene of bedouins, camels and a tent made of gold given to first lady Laura Bush by Saudi King Abdullah.
Unfortunately for the Bushes, Rice and other recipients, they won't be able to enjoy the gifts as they have been turned over to the General Services Administration and government archives in accordance with federal law, which bars officials from accepting personal presents in almost all circumstances.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Kufiyaspotting miscellaneous #4689
Although I've been completely obsessed today by what is going on in Gaza, the kufiyaspotting must go on. Three random items:
1. Even though Urban Outfitters discontinued its Early Spring '07 kufiya line, marketed as "antiwar woven scarves," it has continued to sell kufiyas, just under other names. Today you can buy a pretty authentic-looking (but probably made in China) black-and-white kufiya from Urban Outfitters online, marketed as a "houndstooth scarf," and found under male accessories. $20. Good for wearing at demos to protest Israel's onslaught on Gaza.
Note that the model is wearing a Sitting Bull t-shirt, also available from Urban Outfitters.
Does the Sitting Bull t-shirt make the houndstooth scarf more "edgy"? Or does it remind us that Palestinians too are living in conditions not unlike Indian reservations?
2. I found this photo at a post on Daily Style Guide, entitled "Controversial Fashion: The Shemagh Scarf."
It's Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny Humphrey on The CW television series, Gossip Girl. It's the one about teen socialites of the Upper East Side, New York City, full of jealousy, drugs and sex.
3. From a recent report (December 12) by the very well-informed reporter Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, on Hamas' treatment of the Fateh opposition in the Gaza Strip. (One can only hope that things might change a bit after today.) Please read the entire article here. (Thanks, Theresa!)
Are there really no rivals (Fatah, in other words), or have they been silenced? Around November 11, the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, the Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip worked to conceal any symbols related to the date, the man and the movement - in addition to prohibiting the staging of any memorials.
It wasn't the Fatah movement that called for rallies, but a committee composed of PLO organizations. It didn't even attempt to hold rallies in an open area (such as a soccer field or city plaza) - as Hamas does every few days (with its green flags). When yellow Fatah flags were hung up, police were called to the location and removed them; high school students who went around wearing checkered kaffiyeh-like scarves - or any other symbol that alluded to Arafat and Fatah - were asked to remove them and also summoned for a brief police interrogation. Even candles that were set out in windows in Abu Amar's (Arafat's) memory were confiscated. So Fatah supporters reported, at least. The removal of these symbols wasn't only an expression of the government's self-confidence, but of intimidation and coercion as well.
I think that the kufiyas in question are the black-and-white ones, favored by Arafat and by Fateh supporters. Red ones, favored by Hamas supporters, are okay.
1. Even though Urban Outfitters discontinued its Early Spring '07 kufiya line, marketed as "antiwar woven scarves," it has continued to sell kufiyas, just under other names. Today you can buy a pretty authentic-looking (but probably made in China) black-and-white kufiya from Urban Outfitters online, marketed as a "houndstooth scarf," and found under male accessories. $20. Good for wearing at demos to protest Israel's onslaught on Gaza.
Note that the model is wearing a Sitting Bull t-shirt, also available from Urban Outfitters.
Does the Sitting Bull t-shirt make the houndstooth scarf more "edgy"? Or does it remind us that Palestinians too are living in conditions not unlike Indian reservations?
2. I found this photo at a post on Daily Style Guide, entitled "Controversial Fashion: The Shemagh Scarf."
It's Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny Humphrey on The CW television series, Gossip Girl. It's the one about teen socialites of the Upper East Side, New York City, full of jealousy, drugs and sex.
3. From a recent report (December 12) by the very well-informed reporter Amira Hass in Ha'aretz, on Hamas' treatment of the Fateh opposition in the Gaza Strip. (One can only hope that things might change a bit after today.) Please read the entire article here. (Thanks, Theresa!)
Are there really no rivals (Fatah, in other words), or have they been silenced? Around November 11, the anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, the Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip worked to conceal any symbols related to the date, the man and the movement - in addition to prohibiting the staging of any memorials.
It wasn't the Fatah movement that called for rallies, but a committee composed of PLO organizations. It didn't even attempt to hold rallies in an open area (such as a soccer field or city plaza) - as Hamas does every few days (with its green flags). When yellow Fatah flags were hung up, police were called to the location and removed them; high school students who went around wearing checkered kaffiyeh-like scarves - or any other symbol that alluded to Arafat and Fatah - were asked to remove them and also summoned for a brief police interrogation. Even candles that were set out in windows in Abu Amar's (Arafat's) memory were confiscated. So Fatah supporters reported, at least. The removal of these symbols wasn't only an expression of the government's self-confidence, but of intimidation and coercion as well.
I think that the kufiyas in question are the black-and-white ones, favored by Arafat and by Fateh supporters. Red ones, favored by Hamas supporters, are okay.
Gaza
Such an atrocity today. I shudder to think what tomorrow will bring, as Israel continues its offensive.
The US media accounts are absurdly pro-Israel, as one would expect. Fortunately there are reliable alternatives.
Consult first this article by Sara Roy, who is really the Western expert on Gaza, from the London Review of Books. Penned before today's assault, it provides excellent background. Here's one nugget:
According to the World Health Organisation, the political divisions between Gaza and the West Bank are also having a serious impact on drug stocks in Gaza. The West Bank Ministry of Health (MOH) is responsible for procuring and delivering most of the pharmaceuticals and medical disposables used in Gaza. But stocks are at dangerously low levels. Throughout November the MOH West Bank was turning shipments away because it had no warehouse space, yet it wasn’t sending supplies on to Gaza in adequate quantities. During the week of 30 November, one truck carrying drugs and medical supplies from the MOH in Ramallah entered Gaza, the first delivery since early September.
Makes you wonder how Gaza's hospitals can cope at all with all the wounded.
Helena Cobban (Just World News) has a fine commentary that, among other things, demolishes one typical trope used by the US media, the cycle of violence. It's no "cycle" but a vastly uneven contest, as the rightwing British paper, the Daily Telegraph, tells us in a report today from Tim Butcher:
Nine Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza since it withdrew all settlers and soldiers from the territory in September 2005.
Ali Abunimeh of Electronic Intifada penned a response almost immediately. Here's an excerpt:
What the media never question is Israel's idea of a truce. It is very simple. Under an Israeli-style truce, Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel starves them, kills them and continues to violently colonize their land. Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren.
As John Ging, the head of operations of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told The Electronic Intifada in November: "there was five months of a ceasefire in the last couple of months, where the people of Gaza did not benefit; they did not have any restoration of a dignified existence. We in fact at the UN, our supplies were also restricted during the period of the ceasefire, to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position and with a few days of closure we ran out of food."
Electronic Intifada continues to post invaluable first-hand accounts of what is going on in Gaza by people who are actually on the ground. Western media accounts meanwhile will mostly repeat what Israeli government officials tell them. Here's an excerpt from an account by Safa Joudeh, who is getting an MA in Public Policy from SUNY Stony Brook, and is currently living in Gaza and working as a freelance journalist.
Outside my home which is close to the two largest universities in Gaza, a missile fell on a large group of young men, university students. They'd been warned not to stand in groups as it makes them an easy target, but they were waiting for buses to take them home. Seven were killed, four students and three of our neighbors' kids, young men who were from the Rayes family and were best friends. As I'm writing this I can hear a funeral procession go by outside; I looked out the window a moment ago and it was the three Rayes boys. They spent all their time together when they were alive, they died together and now they are sharing the same funeral together. Nothing could stop my 14-year-old brother from rushing out to see the bodies of his friends laying in the street after they were killed. He hasn't spoken a word since.
The AFSC blog, End the Siege on Gaza, is another very good source for regular updates.
Another source is the Free Gaza Movement, which to date has organized four boat convoys into Gaza, breaking the international blockade. (Kufiya wearer Aki Nawaz of Fun-Da-Mental was on the first mission.)
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has initiated an emergency alert--urging letters to the White House, State Department, Congress and the media, and the organizing of demos and rallies.
Here's a cultural angle. I only discovered this song today--"Hamas Rule," a dubstep track that is somewhat in the Muslimgauze vein, by Shackleton from the Skull Disco release Soundboy Punishments. I recommend it highly. Listen to a segment here. Available to purchase from emusic or itunes. And there is also the great Muslimgauze track, "Curfew, Gaza" from the album Zul'm. Listen here. You can buy a download from emusic or itunes.
The US media accounts are absurdly pro-Israel, as one would expect. Fortunately there are reliable alternatives.
Consult first this article by Sara Roy, who is really the Western expert on Gaza, from the London Review of Books. Penned before today's assault, it provides excellent background. Here's one nugget:
According to the World Health Organisation, the political divisions between Gaza and the West Bank are also having a serious impact on drug stocks in Gaza. The West Bank Ministry of Health (MOH) is responsible for procuring and delivering most of the pharmaceuticals and medical disposables used in Gaza. But stocks are at dangerously low levels. Throughout November the MOH West Bank was turning shipments away because it had no warehouse space, yet it wasn’t sending supplies on to Gaza in adequate quantities. During the week of 30 November, one truck carrying drugs and medical supplies from the MOH in Ramallah entered Gaza, the first delivery since early September.
Makes you wonder how Gaza's hospitals can cope at all with all the wounded.
Helena Cobban (Just World News) has a fine commentary that, among other things, demolishes one typical trope used by the US media, the cycle of violence. It's no "cycle" but a vastly uneven contest, as the rightwing British paper, the Daily Telegraph, tells us in a report today from Tim Butcher:
Nine Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza since it withdrew all settlers and soldiers from the territory in September 2005.
Over the same period, at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in Gaza, according to figures compiled by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group.
Ali Abunimeh of Electronic Intifada penned a response almost immediately. Here's an excerpt:
What the media never question is Israel's idea of a truce. It is very simple. Under an Israeli-style truce, Palestinians have the right to remain silent while Israel starves them, kills them and continues to violently colonize their land. Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren.
As John Ging, the head of operations of the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told The Electronic Intifada in November: "there was five months of a ceasefire in the last couple of months, where the people of Gaza did not benefit; they did not have any restoration of a dignified existence. We in fact at the UN, our supplies were also restricted during the period of the ceasefire, to the point where we were left in a very vulnerable and precarious position and with a few days of closure we ran out of food."
Electronic Intifada continues to post invaluable first-hand accounts of what is going on in Gaza by people who are actually on the ground. Western media accounts meanwhile will mostly repeat what Israeli government officials tell them. Here's an excerpt from an account by Safa Joudeh, who is getting an MA in Public Policy from SUNY Stony Brook, and is currently living in Gaza and working as a freelance journalist.
Outside my home which is close to the two largest universities in Gaza, a missile fell on a large group of young men, university students. They'd been warned not to stand in groups as it makes them an easy target, but they were waiting for buses to take them home. Seven were killed, four students and three of our neighbors' kids, young men who were from the Rayes family and were best friends. As I'm writing this I can hear a funeral procession go by outside; I looked out the window a moment ago and it was the three Rayes boys. They spent all their time together when they were alive, they died together and now they are sharing the same funeral together. Nothing could stop my 14-year-old brother from rushing out to see the bodies of his friends laying in the street after they were killed. He hasn't spoken a word since.
The AFSC blog, End the Siege on Gaza, is another very good source for regular updates.
Another source is the Free Gaza Movement, which to date has organized four boat convoys into Gaza, breaking the international blockade. (Kufiya wearer Aki Nawaz of Fun-Da-Mental was on the first mission.)
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has initiated an emergency alert--urging letters to the White House, State Department, Congress and the media, and the organizing of demos and rallies.
Here's a cultural angle. I only discovered this song today--"Hamas Rule," a dubstep track that is somewhat in the Muslimgauze vein, by Shackleton from the Skull Disco release Soundboy Punishments. I recommend it highly. Listen to a segment here. Available to purchase from emusic or itunes. And there is also the great Muslimgauze track, "Curfew, Gaza" from the album Zul'm. Listen here. You can buy a download from emusic or itunes.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Rock musicians will lobby Obama to stop the use of music as a technology of torture
And this too, courtesy of Wired:
"Reprieve, a British human rights law group that represents over 30 Guantanamo Bay detainees, is planning to work with musicians to lobby President-elect Barack Obama to end the practice of sonic torture by military interrogators."
Read the rest of the article here.
Among musicians who have protested are Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who is considering taking legal action to stop the practice. (Don't forget, Trent Reznor has been kufiyaspotted.)
One of the earliest, and best, accounts of the practice is by my Middle East Report comrade Moustafa Bayoumi, published in The Nation. Read it here.
"Reprieve, a British human rights law group that represents over 30 Guantanamo Bay detainees, is planning to work with musicians to lobby President-elect Barack Obama to end the practice of sonic torture by military interrogators."
Read the rest of the article here.
Among musicians who have protested are Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who is considering taking legal action to stop the practice. (Don't forget, Trent Reznor has been kufiyaspotted.)
One of the earliest, and best, accounts of the practice is by my Middle East Report comrade Moustafa Bayoumi, published in The Nation. Read it here.
"Locked and Loaded" from the US Air Force band Max Impact
Listen here.
Notice that at the beginning you hear both the sounds of a helicopter and an Oriental sounding flute. Just so you know that the lyrics are about...Afghanistan? Iraq? Pakistan?
Here are a few lines, courtesy Wired:
Walk in the shade of the clouds at night
Crawling in the dirt, calling an A-10 strike
Dancing in the shadows, lives are on the line
Bombs are gonna fall, just in time.
Wired is wrong, however, about Max Impact being a "Nu Metal" band, although "Locked and Loaded" is a Nu Metal song. As their website notes, Max Impact "fuses the elements of contemporary music from today's hip-hop, pop and urban sounds-and everything in between. Max Impact brings together the musical styles of today's top artists like Destiny's Child, Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera." Quite a "musical arsenal," as they call it.
Notice that at the beginning you hear both the sounds of a helicopter and an Oriental sounding flute. Just so you know that the lyrics are about...Afghanistan? Iraq? Pakistan?
Here are a few lines, courtesy Wired:
Walk in the shade of the clouds at night
Crawling in the dirt, calling an A-10 strike
Dancing in the shadows, lives are on the line
Bombs are gonna fall, just in time.
Wired is wrong, however, about Max Impact being a "Nu Metal" band, although "Locked and Loaded" is a Nu Metal song. As their website notes, Max Impact "fuses the elements of contemporary music from today's hip-hop, pop and urban sounds-and everything in between. Max Impact brings together the musical styles of today's top artists like Destiny's Child, Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera." Quite a "musical arsenal," as they call it.
Pop Culture Heroes: Eartha Kitt
But she took the steeliness with her, in a willful, outspoken manner that mostly served her career, except once. In 1968 she was invited to a White House luncheon and was asked by Lady Bird Johnson about the Vietnam War. She replied: “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.” The remark reportedly caused Mrs. Johnson to burst into tears and led to a derailment in Ms. Kitt’s career. (New York Times, Dec. 25.)
Which contemporary pop culture icon will have the guts to bring such a message to Mrs. Obama, regarding Afghanistan?
Incidentally, Eartha had a minor hit in 1953 with the song "Uska Dara (A Turkish Tale)," sung in part in Turkish, and based on a Turkish folksong. (Download here.) It must be the only US hit sung in Turkish?
UPDATE, Jan. 9: I just found this excerpt from an interview with Eartha Kitt, published in Re/Search 14, Incredibly Strange Music Vol. I, which elaborates on the Lady Bird incident:
RE/Search: When you were invited to a White House luncheon, didn't you cause a scandal?
EARTHA KITT: In 1968, during the Vietnam War, I was invited by Lady Bird Johnson to give my opinion about the problems in the United States, specifically, "Why is there so much juvenile delinquency in the streets of America?" The First Lady seemed to be more interested in decorating the windows of the ghettos with flowerboxes. I mean—it's fine to put flowers in the ghettos, but let's take care of the necessities first: give people jobs, and find a way to get us out of poverty.
When it came my turn to speak, I said to the president's wife, "Vietnam is the main reason we are having trouble with the youth of America. It is a war without explanation or reason." I said that the young ghetto boys thought it better to have a legal stigma against them—then they would be considered "undesirable" and would not be sent to the war. In their opinion, in this society the good guys lost and the bad guys won.
I didn't say this ranting and raving, but we were in a large room, we didn't have microphones, and we had to speak loudly enough to be heard. That incident, reported in such a way as to deface me in the eyes of the American people, obviously had to have been given by someone from the White House—probably the press secretary: "Earth Kitt makes the First Lady cry..." There were no reporters present! So this was a manufactured furor.
R/S: Didn't you suffer because of this?
EK: Of course—within two hours I was out of work in America.
RIP.
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