Middle East

NOVANEWS   Jeff Halper Struggling as I have for the past decades to grasp the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and find ways to get out of this interminable and absolutely superfluous conflict, I have been two-thirds successful. After many years of activism and analysis, I think I have put my finger on the first third of the equation: What is the problem? My answer, which has withstood the test of time and today is so evident that it elicits the response…“duh”…is that all Israeli governments are unwaveringly determined to maintain complete control of Palestine/Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, frustrating any just and workable solution based on Palestinian claims to self-determination. There will be no negotiated settlement, period.   The second part of the equ...

NOVANEWS  In This Issue... Pay cheap, buy local: Israeli farmers strike for more foreign workers More Recent Articles Search The Only Democracy? Pay cheap, buy local: Israeli farmers strike for more foreign workers   By Audrey Farber     Onions from the Wadi Nisas souk, Haifa. Photo by author. One great thing about Israel is that all the produce comes from nearby – whether Israeli territory or Palestinian territory or Syrian territory or Bedouin lands (I am trying very hard to abstain from political opining regarding where farmlands may or may not lie, but that is inherently impossible) – and I don’t have to worry about buying locally, something that concerns me greatly in the vast agro-industrial complex that characterizes the US. But this strike th...

NOVANEWS Dear Friends, The final brief item of the 6 below is about trying to convince a musical group to not cross the boycott-line by performing in Israel.  If you are unfamiliar with The Fall, you can learn about the British group from their websitehttp://www.visi.com/fall/  Then, if you have time and the inclination, you might wish to send The Fall a few words yourself to ask them not to perform in Israel until it agrees to justice for Palestinians so that all—Muslims, Jews, Christians, seculars, and anyone else living here--can finally have peace and security.  Their email is thefall@hotmail.co.uk  If you lack for reasons to ask them not to come now, you will find a number of these in the items below. Thanks. Items 1, 2, and 3 are about demolitions and detentions and Israeli police mi...

NOVANEWS     What the Oslo Accords were about, from the mouths of babes. Literally. Didi Remez  November 25, 2010 The second season of the Israeli version of the reality show Beauty and the Geek is an even bigger hit than the first. Not least because the producers constantly prove that, in Israel 2010, reality outdoes satire. In the second episode, broadcast Tuesday evening, the girls are quizzed in the Channel Ten TV News studio on the Israeli-Arab conflict by high-brow interviewer Yaron London and mythical Palestinian affairs reporter Yoram Binur. Most of the section is heart breaking. At one point, however, viewers are treated to a dose of honest wisdom that would never be broadcast on a "serious" venue [watch the entire episode here; the passage translated bel...

NOVANEWS In This Issue... In the name of the father: Israel arrests 16 year-old son of imprisoned protest organizer More Recent Articles Search The Only Democracy? In the name of the father: Israel arrests 16 year-old son of imprisoned protest organizer   From the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee In yet another nighttime raid on the village of Bil’in, soldiers stormed Adeeb Abu-  Rahmah’s house and arrested his sixteen year old son   At 2:30 AM this morning Israeli forces entered the village of Bil’in in armored military  jeeps and by foot, and proceeded to surround the home of jailed organizer,  Adeeb Abu Rahmah. A group of masked soldiers forcefully entered the hous  without showing a warrant, and arrested Adeeb’s only son, 16 year o...

NOVANEWS  Dear Friends,   The 7 items below say not a word about the new law that the Israeli Knesset enacted last night making a referendum obligatory if insufficient numbers of MKs agree to returning land to Palestinians when and if the day comes.  Most newspaper reports that I managed to read believe that the law will pose an obstacle for Israel to achieve peace.  But who ever said that Israel wants peace?  If you are interested, here are a few links (the Washington Post, oddly, said nary a word on the subject)—   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11817445 http//www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/world/middleeast/23mideast.html?_r=1&ref=middleeast http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/23/israel-palestine-withdrawal-referendum http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.as...

NOVANEWS Dear All, I missed this item below, which fits in with the initial 5 items that I forwarded a few minutes ago.  Was surprised to find it in the Jerusalem Post, which is not a particularly liberal paper.  But, there it is. Dorothy ================================ Jerusalem Post November 22, 2010      Photo by: AP    Rattling The Cage: Face of Israel in a West Bank courtroom    http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=196367&newsletter=231110&utm_source=Pulseem&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Jpost_Newsletter_23/11   By LARRY DERFNER 22/11/2010     Here’s a look at justice for Palestinians in the only democracy in the Middle East.  This was justice as I’d never seen it, as very, very few Israelis have seen it. The judge was an IDF officer in a light-gree...

NOVANEWS In defence of elitism: the American University of Beirut 22 Nov 2010 By Karl Sharro Published with permission from Karlremarks I was amused to read this philistine attack on the American University of Beirut by Jana Nakhal in Al-Akhbar newspaper, The AUB and Beirut: One Side Love. Nakhal, 'an urban-planning engineer' (sic), subjects the AUB to a shrill anti-colonial examination uncovering it in the process as an 'accelerating factor in the popular acceptance of colonial ideas, tastes and concepts'. (Presumably things like engineering, medicine and architecture which colonialism forced us to accept). Nakhal is upset that the AUB seems to be cut-off from its urban context and is not interested in having any meaningful interaction with the areas that surround it. Its students a...

NOVANEWS What’s the point of a trial? Protest organizer detained indefinitely From the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee: Military Judge Orders to Keep Bil’in Organizer Jailed Even After He Has Finished Serving His Sentence in Full Ed’s note: Not only is organizing popular protest apparently a crime, it is one deserving unending prison sentence. Since it is obvious Israel’s government has no intention of ending the theft of land that cause these protests in the first place, they must resort to locking up the organizer, or the messenger if you will. This should put to rest any thought that these policies of “administrative detention,” in the United States or Israel, are ok because they only target the “worst of the worst ticking bombs” etc. Abdallah Abu Rahmah was scheduled to be rele...

NOVANEWS www.westmidspsc.org   Operation Cast Lead  December 27, 2008 (2008-12-27) – January 18, 2009 Operation Cast Lead   Casualties   1,166 and 1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. During the operation Cast Lead United Nations schools were attacked, hospitals and many houses and other civilian buildings were destroyed. Israel used White Phosphorus during the operation. Israel admits to the use of white phosphorus but asserts that Phosphorus was used legally.   A West Midlands restaurateur lost thirteen members of her family during the Operation Cast Lead. Yet today at the city’s University we have a person speaking in defence of those who executed these crimes against a part of our humanity.   The Israeli Human Rights Organisation, B'Tselem wrote "the extremely heavy civilian casual...