Advances for gay rights: Lebanon, Arkansas, Hollywood

It's not just Milk, folks.

1. Yesterday the Lebanese LGBTIQ support organization Helem organized a sit-in to protest violence against victimized minorities, including homosexuals, women, children, domestic workers and immigrant workers. The organization reported that 200 people participated. As far as I'm aware, this is the first demonstration of its kind in Lebanon. Media reception in the country, it seems, was largely positive (see the accounts here, in English, French and Arabic).

The sign in the photo can be translated as, "Violence is Deviance in a Civilized Society." (Deviance/shudhudh is the standard homophobic epithet used in Arab to describe homosexuality.) The photo is from Helem's facebook site, and posted by Anarchist Queer from "Syria." (Shukran to her and Angry Arab for alerting me to yesterday's action.)

2. Meanwhile in Arkansas, this happened on Saturday:

Arkansas Presbyterians voted overwhelmingly Saturday for a constitutional amendment to allow noncelibate gays and lesbians to serve as deacons, elders and ministers in the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The lopsided 116-64 vote surprised leaders of the Presbytery of Arkansas, a collection of nearly 100 congregations spread across central and northern Arkansas. "It tells me that there's no predicting the Holy Spirit," said Interim General Presbyter Sallie Watson, shortly after the vote.

Read more here.

Even though Arkansas voters passed Act One last November, which bans any unmarried cohabiting couple (gay, straight, whatever) from being able to adopt or be foster parents--not all is homophobic in the Natural State.

3. And then there is Milk, Sean Penn and the Oscar. Hopefully, a blow against Prop 8. But y'all know about that one.

So let's give a cheer for Lebanon and Arkansas, where, unlike in Hollywood, we might not expect such advances.

Anarchist Queer from "Syria"

I'm feeling too crummy (rheumy, achy, coughy) to blog right now, but I just learned about an excellent blog, which y'all should check out: Anarchist Queer from "Syria." Among other great things about it is that it features a red kufiya on the logo. (Uh, Anarchist Queer, isn't black the color of anarchy? Or are you in fact more of a leftist?)

And I'm going to link to it, right now.

NPR report on Israeli racist politician Avigdor Lieberman: no room for Palestinian Arab comments?

This is really remarkable, but not untypical for National Public Radio: a report (from Eric Westervelt, on yesterday's All Things Considered) on Israeli far-right and racist politician Avigdor Lieberman, head of Israel's Israel Beiteinu party. Lieberman's party came out number three in Israel's recent elections, ahead of Labor. It did so well in large part because of its calls for Israel's Palestinian Arab citizens to take loyalty oaths, and its plans to employ "transfer" (i.e. ethnic cleansing) in order to "solve" the Palestine/Israel territory dispute (that is, to "exchange" Palestinian Arab villages in Israel for Jewish settlements in the West Bank).

If you do a news report on a racist politician, it seems that you could find at least one voice from the ethnic/racial minority that is under threat. But Westervelt managed to produce his report without quoting a single Palestinian voice. Only Israeli Jews, seemingly, are qualified to talk about Lieberman.

Not to mention that Westervelt employs the term, "Israeli Arab," throughout his report. Palestinian citizens of Israel reject this terminology vigorously, since it is a designation designed by the Israeli Zionist establishment in order to erase their Palestinian identity.

Come on, NPR, you can do better.

Taqwacores at SXSW

This just in: a Taqwacores concert at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX. Friday, March 20, 2009, 9 P.M. at Club 115, 115 S. Jacinto St.

The lineup is:

The Kominas
Al-Thawra
Omar of Diacritical
Vote Hezbollah
Secret Trial Five

Go here for info on the concert and The Kominas from SXSW, and to download The Kominas' "Sharia Law in the USA."

I am very partial to The Kominas and Al-Thawra; have not yet had much time to familiarize myself with the other groups. (Click on the links above to listen and download.)

I think Mark Levine, author of Heavy Metal Islam, will be sitting in with one or more of the bands on guitar. I don't know whether the godfather of taqwacore, Michael Muhammad Knight, will be there. I'm going to try to get down to Austin for this, if I can figure out how to attend the event without buying one of those super expensive SXSW badges.

Gaza on Our Minds Rap-a-thon in NYC: Tomorrow!

I really wish I could go to this event. If you are in NYC, don't miss it. I've not heard any of these rappers before except for Palestinian MC Sabreena Da Witch (AKA Abeer), who appears in the film Slingshot HipHop and guests on Invincible's track, "People Not Places."

I'm happy to report that there was a fundraising event for Gaza in Fayetteville last Sunday, sponsored by the Omni Center for Peace Justice and Ecology, and featuring Hedy Epstein as the speaker. Hedy is a holocaust survivor who has been active in the Free Gaza Movement, and was on the first Free Gaza boats to make it to Gaza carrying relief supplies back in August, along with Jeff Halper and Fun'Da'Mental's Aki Nawaz, among others. Hedy has also been active in the International Solidarity Movement, and has participated in a number of demonstrations against the apartheid wall, particularly at Bil'in. She is a very inspiring speaker. The money raised went to ANERA.

Alas, it wasn't a hip-hop event, but it did raise money for Gaza.

UPDATE, Feb. 12. The event raised $1460.

Dana International & Tzipi Livni

Kadima leader Tzipi Livni campaigned today with Dana International, the transsexual dance diva, AP reported today. According to the report:

Livni held a noisy, colorful women's rally in Jerusalem, dancing to loud music and singing with Dana International, a popular transsexual entertainer. The pink-and-white themed attempt had a rock-concert feel, as throngs of people jostled to get a glimpse of Livni or have a picture taken with her.

Isn't that great, that with all of that Gaza blood on her hands, that she gets treated like a rock star?

Discussions of Dana International usually don't mention the fact that she is of Yemeni origin, and that early in her career, she recorded a number of hits in Arabic. I published an article on Dana International's popularity and notoriety in Egypt during the mid-1990's in Mass Mediations: New Approaches to Popular Culture in the Middle East and Beyond, ed. Walter Armbrust, University of California Press, 2000. You can read it here.

I have no idea whether Dana actually supports Tzipi, or if she was just paid to show up at the event.

What is even more alarming about the AP report on the run-up to the Israeli elections than Tzipi as a rock star is the rise of Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party.

The Haaretz poll showed Lieberman surging to 18 seats, compared with Labor's 14. That sets Lieberman up as a kingmaker, holding the crucial swing votes that the winner will need to form a government. Lieberman clearly leans toward Netanyahu.

A tough-talking immigrant from Moldova who succeeded in turning a party for immigrants from the former Soviet Union into one with broad national appeal, Lieberman has centered his platform on attacking Israel's Arab citizens, demanding that they sign an oath of loyalty or lose their right to vote or be elected.

Perhaps his most polarizing policy is to redraw Israel's borders, pushing areas with heavy concentrations of Arabs outside the country and under Palestinian jurisdiction.

Lieberman appears to be capitalizing on a swell of anti-Arab sentiment among Israelis, fueled partially by the rocket fire from Gaza that sparked Israel's recent offensive there.

The number three party in Israel, the kingmaking party, may well be one that advocates ethnic cleansing. (I should add that Israel launched the offensive against Gaza, starting on November 4. The rocket fire from Gaza came in response to Israel's aggression. This erroneous claim, of course, is repeated endlessly in the US media.)

Documentary on the last kufiya factory in Palestine

By French journalist Benoit Faiveley, courtesy Monocle. Watch it here.

Among other things we learn, from owner Yusif Harbawi and one of his workers, that black and white is for Fateh, red for the PFLP, multicolored ones for tourists, and green for Hamas--but they don't get many orders for the latter. (It seems that in Gaza, however, red ones are favored by Hamas supporters.)

A young man named Muhammad, from Ramallah, is also interviewed. He says that in the Occupied Territories, before 1992, at a time when the Palestinian flag was banned, the kufiya functioned as the symbol of Palestinian nationalism. According to Hirbawi (or his assistant), during the first Palestinian intifada (1987-92), the factory had lots of work, and produced on the order of 1000 kufiyas a day. Today it produces around 70-80. Previously 15 machines in the factory operated; today only 4 operate, 2 hours a day.

The problem is imports, mostly from China. It has affected textile production in Hebron in general, which has declined drastically since the West Bank and Gaza opened up to trade in the wake of the "peace process" launched in 1992. Hirbawi argues forcibly that such imports should stop, and that Palestinians should be buying textiles and kufiyas that are produced in Palestine.

It's unlikely that the quisling Abbas regime will make any move to bolster Palestinian industry, however. It's not likely that he even has any power to do so.

Hirbawi and his factory have received a lot of attention from the media in the last couple of years. See my previous posts on Hebron kufiyas here.

Crusade against kebabs in Italy

Italy's anti-immigrant movement gets even loonier. (I've highlighted some of the most pithy and outrageous aspects of this campaign.)

Can we expect Italian crusades against the kufiya soon? Make no mistake, this is for the most part anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism and xenophobia. As the article notes, what are they gonna do about Sicilian cuisine, which is rooted in Arab cuisine?

From The Times of London
January 31, 2009
Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities
Richard Owen in Rome

The tomato comes from Peru and spaghetti was probably a gift from China.

It is, though, the “foreign” kebab that is being kicked out of Italian cities as it becomes the target of a campaign against ethnic food, backed by the centre-right Government of Silvio Berlusconi.

The drive to make Italians eat Italian, which was described by the Left and leading chefs as gastronomic racism, began in the town of Lucca this week, where the council banned any new ethnic food outlets from opening within the ancient city walls.

Yesterday it spread to Lombardy and its regional capital, Milan, which is also run by the centre Right. The antiimmigrant Northern League party brought in the restrictions “to protect local specialities from the growing popularity of ethnic cuisines”.

Luca Zaia, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the Northern League from the Veneto region, applauded the authorities in Lucca and Milan for cracking down on nonItalian food. “We stand for tradition and the safeguarding of our culture,” he said.

Mr Zaia said that those ethnic restaurants allowed to operate “whether they serve kebabs, sushi or Chinese food” should “stop importing container loads of meat and fish from who knows where” and use only Italian ingredients.

Asked if he had ever eaten a kebab, Mr Zaia said: “No – and I defy anyone to prove the contrary. I prefer the dishes of my native Veneto. I even refuse to eat pineapple.”

Mehmet Karatut, who owns one of four kebab shops in Lucca, said that he used Italian meat only.

Davide Boni, a councillor in Milan for the Northern League, which also opposes the building of mosques in Italian cities, said that kebab shop owners were prepared to work long hours, which was unfair competition.

“This is a new Lombard Crusade against the Saracens,” La Stampa, the daily newspaper, said. The centre-left opposition in Lucca said that the campaign was discrimination and amounted to “culinary ethnic cleansing”.

Vittorio Castellani, a celebrity chef, said: “There is no dish on Earth that does not come from mixing techniques, products and tastes from cultures that have met and mingled over time.”

He said that many dishes thought of as Italian were, in fact, imported. The San Marzano tomato, a staple ingredient of Italian pasta sauces, was a gift from Peru to the Kingdom of Naples in the 18th century. Even spaghetti, it is thought, was brought back from China by Marco Polo, and oranges and lemons came from the Arab world.

Mr Castellani said that the ban reflected growing intolerance and xenophobia in Italy. It was also a blow to immigrants who make a living by selling ethnic food, which is popular because of its low cost. There are 668 ethnic restaurants in Milan, a rise of nearly 30 per cent in one year.

The centre Right won national elections in April last year partly because of alarm about crime and immigration. This week there was a series of attacks on immigrants in bars and shops after the arrest of six Romanians accused of gang-raping an Italian girl in the Rome suburb of Guidonia.

Filippo Candelise, a Lucca councillor, said: “To accuse us of racism is outrageous. All we are doing is protecting the culinary patrimony of the town.”

Massimo Di Grazia, the city spokesman, said that the ban was intended to improve the image of the city and to protect Tuscan products. “It targets McDonald’s as much as kebab restaurants,” he added.

There is confusion, however, over what is meant by ethnic. Mr Di Grazia said that French restaurants would be allowed. He was unsure, though, about Sicilian cuisine. It is influenced by Arab cooking.

Mouin Rabbani & Chris Toensing on Obama's Middle East Policies

I've been without power or heat at home since early Tuesday morning, and came in to the office today to do a bit of email. No time for serious posting. In the meanwhile, read this latest Middle East Report Online, from the inestimable Mouin Rabbani and Chris Toensing.

Here's a pithy excerpt:

The real test for Washington will therefore be not how often Mitchell shuttles to and around the region, but how rapidly it acts to freeze Israeli settlement expansion in all its forms and reverse Israeli impunity in the Occupied Territories. If the issue of settlements, the elephant in the room left unmentioned by the speakers at the State Department on January 22, has still not been seriously addressed by the time Mitchell returns from his first trip (and in 2001, recall, he only said Israel should “consider” a freeze if the Palestinians effectively disarm), it will be time to write the two-state paradigm’s definitive obituary.

The problem is that the death notice will not be accompanied by a birth announcement for a binational state. With the vast majority of Israelis committed to retaining a Jewish state, and the vast majority of Palestinians in response demanding that their ethnicity be privileged in their own entity, a South African-type transformation on the Mediterranean is at best many years away. The more likely scenario, for the coming years, is a descent into increasingly existential, and regionalized, conflict.

"Fuck Your Arab Money" (Plus: kufiyaspotting)

From Revolution of the Mind--recording name for an Iranian-American named Ali. He remixes and completely recasts and politicizes Busta Rhyme's rather silly song "Arab Money," and discusses Gaza, Falluja, Oscar Grant. All you sheiks and emirs, watch out!

It's great. I hope Busta has been properly reeducated. This dude can really rap. Check out Revolution of the Mind's myspace page for more.

Rich fucks ain't leavin' without payin' the price...

All the democratic leaders overthrown and killed
They needed house sand niggers to close the deal...

You can do that dumb dance with emirs and sheiks
But only time you see that on the Arab street...

Yeah, fuck your Arab money
Wealth of the people you take that from me..

See our babies and our women dyin' in Gaza right now.
Where's your fuckin' Arab money, huh?

Misc: Facebook Politics in Egypt; Taqwacores; Art in Palestine; The Nasty: Gaza?

1. Facebook Egypt: The New York Times Sunday Magazine yesterday had a very interesting article about Facebook politics in Egypt, focusing on the April 6 Youth Movement in support of striking Egyptian textile workers. (Among other things, this line from Egypt's beloved Nubian singer, Mohammed Mounir: “I didn’t need to repent; loving Egypt is not a sin.”) And it tells us that the US government is deeply interested:

James Glassman, the outgoing under secretary of state for public diplomacy, told me he followed the group closely. “It’s not easy in Egypt, and in other countries in the Middle East, to form robust civil-society organizations,” he said. “And in a way that’s what these groups are doing, although they’re certainly unconventional.”

Other State Department officials told me they believe that social-networking software like Facebook’s has the potential to become a powerful pro-democracy tool. They pointed to recent developments in Saudi Arabia, where in November a Facebook group helped organize a national hunger strike against the kingdom’s imprisonment of political opponents, and in Colombia, where activists last February used Facebook to organize one of the largest protests ever held in that country, a nationwide series of demonstrations against the FARC insurgency. Not long ago, the State Department created its own group on Facebook called “Alliance of Youth Movements,” a coalition of groups from a dozen countries who use Facebook for political organizing. Last month, they brought an international collection of young online political activists, including one from the April 6 group, as well as Facebook executives and representatives from Google and MTV, to New York for a three-day conference.

2. Taqwacores: A post on this is long overdue. The LA Times on a teenage Muslim punk/taqwacore in Sugarland, Texas. "Muhammad was a punk rocker, he tore everything down. Muhammad was a punk rocker and he rocked that town."

PS: The Kominas, oldschool taqwacores, will be playing at South by Southwest this March. More on this later.

3. Palestine Art: I just learned about this book, Palestine, rien ne nous manque ici (Palestine, We Lack Nothing Here), ed. Adila Laidi-Hanieh. It is described as follows: "Ce livre est le premier à penser une Palestine contemporaine de manière introspective, multidisciplinaire et critique, telle que vécue et perçue par des artistes et intellectuels Palestiniens et non Palestiniens internationalement confirmés et émergents, a travers des textes en majorité inédits - dont trois nouveaux textes de Mahmoud Darwich."

The editor, who has taught at Birzeit University and is now working on a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies at George Mason University, will speak on "The Palestinian Paradox: Post Modern Globalized Cultural Practices under Colonialism," on February 6, at
7:00 PM, at Cabinet Magazine’s Open Event & Exhibition Space, 300 Nevins St, Brooklyn, NY. Sponsored by Arteast.

4. Cincinnati: The Arts section of yesterday's NYT reminds us that Cincinnati was a major, but forgotten player in the development of rock and soul and R&B in the US. And that the scene, developed by King Records beginning in the 1940s, was as cross-racial as that in the much better known hothouse of Memphis. I was cheered to learn that it was Bootsy Collins who has played a major role in preserving, and reviving, the memory of King Records, run by the irrascible genius Syd Nathan. Didn't know that Wynonie Harris' "Bloodshot Eyes" was originally a country song, or that The Stanley Brothers recorded Hank Ballard's "Finger Poppin' Time."

5. Forget Gaza?: Robert Fisk reminds us why we had a right to expect Obama to talk about Gaza, Israel and Palestine at his inauguration address:

Did Obama's young speech-writer not realise that talking about black rights – why a black man's father might not have been served in a restaurant 60 years ago – would concentrate Arab minds on the fate of a people who gained the vote only three years ago but were then punished because they voted for the wrong people? It wasn't a question of the elephant in the china shop. It was the sheer amount of corpses heaped up on the floor of the china shop.

Inauguration Memorabilia: "This Land Is Your Land"--The Unexpurgated Version

I'm so glad Pete Seeger lived to see the day, and to teach millions the real lyrics to "This Land Is Your Land." To strike a blow for social solidarity and against the dogmas of private property. If only the backing choir had all been wearing red!

Ben Affleck, Annie Lennox, Tony Shalhoub on Gaza

Ben Affleck comes correct! From Angry Arab, I learned about this report by Mary Ann Akers, from the Google inaugural party:

Affleck was railing about the Israeli invasion of Gaza. And, thanks to his special access, he said he has already registered his concerns with the highest echelons of the Obama administration. He said he gave White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel an earful about Israel at a private dinner the night before."

It pays to have an agent who is the brother of the new White House chief of staff. Affleck's agent is Ari Emanuel, the model for obnoxious Hollywood super agent Ari Gold in the hit HBO show "Entourage."

I had understood that Ben Affleck was of Arab origin, from the same family as Michel 'Aflaq, founder of the Ba'ath Party. I've not found conclusive evidence, however. Poking around, however, I did find this youtube clip, and learned that he has spoken out about such issues before. Check it out. I have been somewhat lukewarm about Affleck as an actor; my estimation of him as an honorable human being has just risen.



Meanwhile, I also learned, courtesty of the amazing music blog, BigO, that Annie Lennox was criticized for her high-profile activities against Israel's assault on Gaza, in an open letter published in The Jerusalem Post. BigO reproduces her very sensible response, which she published on her myspace page. (Presumably the Post didn't want to publish it.)

The Muslim Public Affairs Council has organized a Benefit Concert for Gaza, to be held today on USC campus, with Michelle Shocked as the headliner. Tony Shalhoub, Casey Kasem and Salam Al-Marayati have issued a letter endorsing the event. Here's an excerpt:

On January 7th, a senior U.N. official in Gaza declared, "I want to tell the world's leaders something: You are not to sleep, eat or drink until you stop the killing of innocent people in the Gaza Strip." On that same day, Cardinal Renato Martino, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Peace and Justice, said "Look at the conditions in Gaza: more and more, it resembles a big concentration camp."

Let's hope we hear more from Tony Shalhoub (Monk) too.

After the War on Gaza, the Kufiya is More Alive than Ever

If you've been watching any news about Gaza and the protests against it over the past three weeks, especially if you've been checking out Al Jazeera English (or Arabic), you've seen lots of kufiyas. Solidarity with Palestinians is at an all-time high--except in the US.

Robert Fisk, reporting from Lebanon in The Independent, notes today:

"Europe laughs while Palestinians mourn their dead. No wonder that in the streets of Beirut, shops were doing a flourishing trade in Palestinian scarves and flags. Even some of Palestine's most serious enemies in Lebanon wore the Palestinian keffiyeh in solidarity with the people of Gaza."

Be sure to read the entire article.


Here's a photo of a kufiya-garbed Lebanese woman, at a demonstration organized by Lebanese leftists at the Canadian Embassy in Beirut, January 13. They were protesting the fact that Canada's delegation cast the only vote against the UN Human Rights Council resolution criticizing Israel's actions in Gaza. Courtesy Radical Beirut.

Invincible, "The Emperor's Clothes": MORE GAZA MUSIC

Invincible (Detroit) has just put out a rap track about Gaza, produced by the inimitable K-Salaam and Beatnick, called "The Emperor's Clothes." You need to download it, you need to listen, you need to circulate everywhere. Go here to get it, to read more about it, and to check out additional music and videos from Invincible. (The download requires that you sign up for divShare, which will only take a few seconds.

Hip-Hop benefit for Gaza

I'm posting the day before the event, but I just wanted to note that it is occurring: 2 hip-hop benefits for Gaza. About time! If you can't attend, you could still send money to American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), to help the Gazans.

Note in particular the participation of Immortal Technique. I really like the sound and the politics of his album, The 3rd World.

And also, Sabreena da Witch (Abeer), who appears in Jackie Salloum's film about Palestinian rap, Slingshot HipHop. Check out her myspace page here.

And, DJ K-Salaam, an Iranian-American. His mixtape with Beatnick, NY Is Burning, is terrific. (And the cover features a kufiya.)

Here's the announcement I received via Facebook:

Enraged by the news about Gaza?

Come out on MLK weekend to find strength, community, and the will to challenge our government’s unconditional support of Israeli's actions.

Musicians, hip hop artists, poets, and visual artists concerned about the ongoing attacks on Gaza come together for two public performance events this Sunday, January 18th

Two Sister Events:

HANDS OFF GAZA: Excerpts from the documentary “Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land," performance, poetry, and video messages from Palestinian musicians Shadia Mansour and DAM. 5-7 pm, Alwan for the Arts, 16 Beaver St, 4th floor (between Broad and Broadway), Manhattan. $20 suggested donation… no one turned away.

I (HEART) GAZA: A night of hip hop, dancing, and artistic resistance.
9pm- 4am @ Sugarland 221 N 9th St (between Driggs Ave & Roebling St)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 21+ (bar) $10 ($5 if you go to HANDS OFF GAZA)

Confirmed performers include:
HANDS OFF GAZA: Immortal Technique, G.O.D, M1 from Dead Prez, Aalikes, Rebel Diaz, Remi Kanazi, Tahani Salah, Khalil al Mustafa, Hasan Salaam, Marcel Cartier, Sabreena Da Witch, and DJ Johnny Juice (Public Enemy)

I (HEART) GAZA: DJ Unconquer'd, Rebel Diaz, DJ K-Salaam, Remi Kanazi, Koba, Queen Godis, Sabreena Da Witch, DJ Oja, Donny Goines + projections: Art and Resistance

The events will be “bridged” by a Subway Freedom March leaving Alwan for the Arts at 7:30pm and ending at Sugarland in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

**100% of the money raised at the events will be donated for Humanitarian aid to Gaza through MAP UK and Anera.org.

Gaza Rally at University of Arkansas; Arkansas' Complicity in White Phosphorus Attacks on Gaza

Israel, Stop Bombing Civilians
Originally uploaded by tsweden

Demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza and against the deadly Israeli assault continue to occur all over the globe, including the Ozarks. Yesterday about 50 people braved the very cold weather (only slightly above freezing) to protest Israel's bloody attacks on Gaza.

Abel Tomlinson, Amjad Faur, and yours truly addressed the crowd.

Here's an excerpt from my remarks:

I want to add that as Americans, and as Arkansans, we have a special responsibility in this regard. Israel simply would not be able to carry out its murderous attacks without the F-16 jet fighters, the Apache Helicopters, and the high-tech bunker-busting missiles that we supply it. And then there are the bombs containing white phosphorus. White phosphorus is used as a weapon to create a smoke screen hide military operations. But if it hits humans, it can burn the flesh down to the bone.

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using white phosphorus in areas of Gaza heavily populated by civilians and it has demanded that Israel stop, as such use constitutes a violation of international law. Palestinian doctors treating burned patients in Gaza say that the burns they see are unlike anything they have seen previously. On Monday, medics in Gaza said at least 60 Palestinians, many of them children, had been burned by suspected phosphorus shells. I urge you to look for reports on the internet, to see what children burned by white phosphorus look like. You will be horrified. And yesterday, Israeli bombs started fires in a hospital and in a UN compound, and hospital and UN officials claimed these fires were started by phosphorus bombs.

Friends, we are complicit in these war crimes. Israel gets its white phosphorus shells from the US, and these come Pine Bluff Arsenal, in Arkansas, which is the only active site where such weapons are loaded. We need to demand that the US immediately cease supplying weapons to Israel, until it agrees to live in peace with its Palestinian neighbors, and we should put particular pressure on our elected representatives from the state of Arkansas, as well as President elect Obama and soon to be Secretary State. Please write to them and demand that we stop shipping weapons from our state, weapons that are burning children's flesh, to the bone.

Not in our name. In the words of Jeff Lebowski, this aggression will not stand, man. Peace.

Red Flags, Red Kufiyas: Leftists in Lebanon demonstrate in support of Gaza

Angry Arab has been reporting that many demonstrations in Lebanon in solidarity with Gaza have been led by leftists and in particular, the Communist Party. If you read Arabic, here's a report from As-Safir on yesterday's demonstration in Beirut, where thousands marched despite the rain.

The article says that representatives from the Lebanese CP, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Democratic Party (about which I know nothing), as well as leading trade unionists. In addition to the red kufiyas and the red flags with hammer and sickle, posters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Che Guevara, as well as Venezuelan flags, were much in evidence.

Kufiya note: Hamas in Gaza has seized on the red-and-white kufiya as its symbol, in contrast to the Fateh/Arafat black-and-white one. In Lebanon, the leftists go for the red-and-white. Not in solidarity with Hamas, but because red is the socialist color.

(Photo credit: 'Ali Lama')

Brian Eno, Annie Lennox at London Protests Yesterday

Yesterday in London, an estimated 20,000 (BBC) or 100,000 (the organizers) marched in protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Among the marchers: the venerated musician, Brian Eno, who is presented as one of the many British Jews who participated in the march.

This is not the first time Eno has been involved in protests of this sort. He played in a benefit concert on the same bill with Rachid Taha, Nitin Sawhney, and Imogen Heap back in November 2005, to support England's Stop the War coalition.

Check out the footage from the BBC, with comment from Brian Eno, here.

Annie Lennox was there, too, like last week, and she addressed the crowd:



The main issue that Annie raises is of the children killed in the Israeli invasion, and she holds up a poster with some of the more grisly photos that are circulating. So beware, when you watch the vid. (They are real, they are not phony.) At the end, she calls what is going on "genocide." Please see Juan Cole's post for a defense of this claim. (I learned about Annie's address courtesy of Juan's post.)

UPDATE:

I've just read John Hutnyk's post on the London demo, and his comment on the Observer's account of the violence that occurred at the Israeli Embassy. As Hutnyk says, the main factor was "anger at the atrocities and at the introduction of riot cops and mounted police." And Hutnyk includes this photo of one of the young protesters, down for some action. (Thanks, John.)

I learn from the article in the Observer that Bianca Jagger was in attendance, again, and that she addressed the crowd. As did Rev Garth Hewitt, canon at St George's Cathedral in Jerusalem. I didn't meet him, but I'm glad to say that when I was in Jerusalem for two weeks this past June, I stayed at the St. George's Cathedral Guesthouse.

Sunday New York Times: Prevaricating on Gaza, Hiding Gaza

I usually devote a chunk of Sunday a.m. to reading the pages of the New York Times. But whenever there is an outrage involving Israel, it ceases to be a relaxing occupation.

Today, none of the commentators or the editorial columns mention Gaza. There are demonstrations throughout the world, the UN is again raising questions about whether Israel committed war crimes, the US' reputation in the Middle East is in tatters again due to our complicity with the aggression...and nary a word. Maureen Dowd's column mentions the word once--seemingly to cast blame on Cheney for whatever it is she thinks he has to do with it, but it's entirely unclear. Tom Friedman, Frank Rich, Nick Kristoff, and guest columnist Bono: nothing.

There is a column from the ombudsman or Public Editor who addresses claims from "both sides" that the Times' coverage is biased one way or another, and argues that it is essentially "balanced." See the Angry Arab for daily demolitions of that claim.

Here's what really got my goat. On page 2 of the Week in Review section, "An Eyeful in Gaza," which recaps events of the past week, the Times writes: "In hopes of weakening Hamas, Israel has blockaded shipments of goods into Gaza in varying degrees since the militant group violently seized full power in the territory in 2007..."

Sanctions against Gaza were imposed by Israel, the US and the EU in the wake of parliamentary elections in January 2006. The sanctions included restrictions on the movement of goods and people. Such restrictions, aimed at a democratically elected government, were a prelude to the more severe restrictions imposed after Hamas fully took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007. It's important to recall that this was in response to threats of a Fateh coup. Read Ali Abunimeh on this here.