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NOVANEWS Dear supporters, By the end of April 2010, phase 1 of our campaign to save the Village of Lifta will come to an end.  We have been overwhelmed by the number of signatures that the Petition has attracted. A lot of gratitude for that goes to the Palestine Think Tank under the driving force of Mary Rizzo. We are hoping that by the end of this phase, we will have attracted at least 2958 signatures (the number of Liftawis who were living in Lifta in 1948 when the Zionist underground forces expelled them from their beautiful homes). With the help of each one of you, we hope to reach that number if you can pass the Petition around to those who share our aims and goals to save Lifta. You can do it. Phase 2 will include filing the application to the World Monuments Fund in May 2010.  With ...

NOVANEWS The Israel Lobby’s Smear Campaign and Toronto Gay Pride Are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities the next battle ground for the struggle over Palestinian equal rights? They certainly are in San Francisco, where this month’s controversial Out in Israel festival seeks in part to erase the occupation by promoting Israel as a gay mecca, and in Toronto, where a nasty smear campaign is being waged to ban a group called Queers United Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) from the annual Pride parade. What’s remarkable about Toronto isn’t that some oppose QuAIA’s presence in the parade–in the classic tradition of LGBT parades, which are by their very nature acts of political resistance, QuAIA’s message is challenging and it’s meant to be.  What’s amazing is that their opp...

Boycotting Democracy at the Davis Coop The Israel Lobby’s Smear Campaign and Toronto Gay Pride More Recent Articles Search MuzzleWatch NOVANEWS Boycotting Democracy at the Davis Coop Boycott campaigns are always controversial, even at food cooperatives. So much so that it is advisable to have a policy for dealing with them. The Davis Food Coop has one, a wise move in California. So why aren’t they following their own policy? Well, apparently there are boycotts and then there are boycotts. The Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights (DCPR) believe they gathered enough signatures for a vote on a boycott of Israeli products. However, even as they collected signatures, the coop management has informed them that they will not be allowed a vote. The reason is that the vote is likely to be “...

 NOVANEWS   by Gila Svirsky This story is a testament to the Internet. (Ed.: in particular blogger Richard Silverstein who broke the story!)  And to Anat Kam, the whistleblower, who is widely regarded in Israeli security circles as a traitor and will probably soon be charged with treason. Anat (I’ll use her first name, though I don’t know her) is a 23-year old journalist who wrote for the popular Israeli portal Walla. Some months ago, Anat did the unthinkable: she passed on information that was decidedly newsworthy, but that the Shin Bet – Israel’s security services – did not want outsiders to have. It was a”hit list” – the names of Palestinians living in the West Bank who were on the Shin Bet’s “wanted” list. And it was a copy of the Shin Bet protocol stating that if these “...

NOVANEWS  There are currently over 130 different nationalities that have been recognized by the State of Israel for use in registering for an ID card.  “Arab” and “Unknown” are, uniquely in the world, recognized as a form of nationality — but “Israeli” is not. On the other hand,  if you are Jewish it matters not what nationality you are –Israel recognizes you as belonging to ”the Jewish nation”.  Now  Jonathan Cook reports on a group of Jews and Arabs who are petitioning the Israeli Supreme Court to be recognized as “Israelis,”  in a case that officials fear may threaten the country’s self-declared status as a Jewish state.  Israel refused to recognize an Israeli nationality at the country’s establishment in 1948, making an unusual distinction between “citizenship” and “nationality.” Alth...

NOVANEWS  Those progressive Lib Dems posted by lenin Nick Clegg's magic electoral solution - praise Thatcher, outflank the Tories on cuts: In an interview with the Spectator, Clegg says he has come to view Thatcher's victory over the unions as "immensely significant" and goes further than the Conservative party in courting economic liberalism, by saying he would end the structural deficit with 100% spending cuts, as opposed to the 80% cuts the Conservatives have proposed. Labels: lib dems, neoliberalism, public spending, thatcherism, tories 

NOVANEWS  Digital Economy Bill - Stable Door. Horse. Bolted. posted by lenin A little noticed bill was passed into law by MPs in the 'wash up' between the calling of the general election and the dissolution of parliament. It was pushed through without a great deal of real debate, and with a lot of last minute negotiating by party fixers and whips. Most MPs were not present in the house to vote on it, and most of those who were participated in a Labour-Tory pact to see the bill signed into law. It's called the Digital Economy Act (née Bill), and it's supposed to protect grumpy 'creative' industries - embracing music, film, publishing, software, IT and other manufacturers - from the file-sharers. The central proposal was originally to disconnect users who were found to have infringed copyrig...

NOVANEWS  Worst. Election. Ever. posted by lenin The 2010 general election will result in a victory for the nasty party, whoever wins. All three major parties, having supported the mammoth bank bailouts, stand for the deepest cuts in the public sector for over 50 years, far outstripping anything accomplished by Thatcher. Outdoing Thatcher in the cuts stakes is, in case the point passed you by, as nasty as can be. The chancellors' debate - which, underscoring the poverty of alternatives, was won by the drab former Shell economist Vincent Cable - reinforced this quite starkly. There is only a difference of emphasis and timing between the parties, and these differences all sound eminently reasonable and plausible within the terms of the discussion - but they are largely technocratic differen...

NOVANEWS "Nonviolence has never caught on here." Oh, yeah. Nonviolence has never caught on here in Palestine as opposed there in Israel, where nonviolence is the norm? Explain that, Mr. Bronner

NOVANEWS "A Muslim group has demanded an apology from the British Army after it emerged that replica mosques were being used on a North Yorkshire firing range."