NOVANEWS
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BDS comes to Penn
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Christmas in Gaza
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VIDEO: A slice of life at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank
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Right-wing attack group caught fabricating quotes in effort to smear critics of Israel
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BDS victory: Veolia loses huge waste-treatment contract in London boroughs
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My own Mondo Award inspiration entry: a long-distance marriage born of the Arab Spring
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Pentagon asks for extra $100 million to Israel for Iran defense (and Congress doubles the tip)
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Palestinian Christians pray for threatened valley
BDS comes to Penn
Dec 25, 2011
Ahmed Moor
(Graphic: pennbds.org)
The past few years have seen the BDS movement electrify campus activism – a bright spot on the landscape of Palestine advocacy. The movement has enabled students around the country to engage constructively with the big moral question of our era – apartheid in Palestine. Thanks to BDS, thousand-mile expanses no longer stand in the way of direct non-violent action.
Still, the movement has some way to go before it can boast the levels of support that the South African call once enjoyed. That’s part of the reason that students at the University of Pennsylvania are organizing an on-campus BDS conference there. The two-day event will take place on the weekend of February 4th and 5th and will examine ways to strengthen campus-based activism.
As you can imagine Zionist groups have reacted badly to the news. The Jewish Exponentpicked up the story, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry-affiliated Stand With Us organization has already posted a smear targeting Penn BDS on its website (see here and here for Ali Abunimah’s and Alex Kane’s posts about SWU’s fabricated quotes). Other groups have also contacted university officials in an attempt to abort the conference and silence dissenting voices.
The University – my alma mater – has been clear in its unequivocal support of Israel, but it has also emphasized its commitment to free speech. So while no moves have been made to block the conference the administration hasn’t been supportive either.
As an aside, it would be nice to hear President Gutmann’s reasons for standing with Israel. She is a renowned moral philosopher who’s written about multiculturalism and democracy – corrosive ideas if you’re a modern-day Zionist. I wonder what she thinks about race-based privilege and apartheid in general. Perhaps she’d be interested in making the moral case for militaristic ethnocracies; Danny Ayalon could put her talents to good use.
In any event, the lack of administration support has meant that Penn BDS has had to appeal to individuals for funding. So if you’d like to support the students’ intrepid efforts you can donate here. Conference spaces are also filling up quickly so be sure to register soon if you’re in the Philadelphia area.
Christmas in Gaza
Dec 25, 2011
Ruqaya Izzidien
Approximately 3,000 Christian Palestinians live in Gaza, with many families forced to the coastal enclave in 1948 from Al Majdal and other nearby towns. Few of those who now have family in the West Bank are able to visit this holiday season, where Christmas celebrations are substantially larger and more festive. Nevertheless, Palestinian Christians in Gaza have been gearing up for the celebration, determined to enjoy Christmas.
A sweet vendor fries local traditional sweets amid Christmas decorations in the southern town of Khan Younis. (All Photos: Ruqaya Izzidien)
A Christian scout group meets at Gaza’s Greek Orthodox Church and breaks out into an impromptu dabka dance.
Following the Sunday mass, Orthodox Christians eat a sweetened boiled wheat dessert to commemorate 100 days after the passing of a church member.
The original construction of the Orthodox Church was built in the 6thCentury, in what is now Gaza’s Old City. The church and neighbouring Katb al Welaya Mosque share a wall, and the church bells and mosque minaret stand adjacent.
Biblical images adorn the interior of the Greek Orthodox Church, which celebrates Christmas on January 7.
Children gather in the Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius for Sunday school, which is held on Friday, which is when the weekend falls in many Middle Eastern countries.
This year Israel has given permits to 500 Palestinian Christians in Gaza to visit the West Bank for Christmas. As permission is automatically denied to anyone over 35 or under 16,
the few who are granted permission often choose to say in Gaza,
rather than leave their family behind at Christmas.
VIDEO: A slice of life at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank
Dec 24, 2011
Adam Horowitz
Video: Machson Watch
As you watch this video keep in mind that the Qalandia checkpoint is not a border crossing between Israel and the West Bank. Like most Israeli checkpoints in the occupied territories, Qalandia is located squarely in Palestinian territory and prevents Palestinians from traveling freely between one Palestinian area to another.
Right-wing attack group caught fabricating quotes in effort to smear critics of Israel
Dec 24, 2011
Alex Kane
Smearing critics of Israel as anti-Semitic may have cost Josh Block a perch at a Washington think tank, but right-wing groups continue to use the slur to attack those in solidarity with Palestinians. This time, though, the right-wing Zionist group Stand With Us (SWU) was caught pushing fabricated quotes in an effort to attack an upcoming boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) conference in Pennsylvania.
A celebratory press release applauding an official University of Pennsylvania statement on a BDS conference in February turned into a headache for SWU after quick examination of the press release made clear that SWU was making quotes up to undermine the conference. The quotes were attributed to well-known writers Helena Cobban and Ali Abunimah.
The press release reads:
We were extremely concerned because the line-up of scheduled speakers indicated that this event would be filled with age-old bigotry and prejudice to incite hatred against Israel and foment bitter divisions on campus. Our research has revealed that most of the scheduled speakers are extremists who oppose the existence of the Jewish state and irresponsibly spread propaganda, distort facts, whitewash or justify terrorism and the murder of Jews, and frequently lie about basic facts to demonize Israel and its supporters…
Another invited speaker, Helena Cobban, has claimed that Israelis are “incapable of empathy and compassion for other people.” (January 2009, Georgetown University) Keynote speaker Ali Abunimah has declared that “Ending the occupation does not solve the problem. The Jews do not view all human beings as equal. The 1948 borders were calculated to harm Christians, Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims.” (Chicago Sabeel Conference, October 7, 2005)
After I saw the press release due to an Israeli army spokesman tweeting a link to it, I immediately alerted Ali Abunimah on Twitter to the statement. Abunimah has more:
When I asked StandWithUs via Twitter to provide and publish the source for the quote, which is not included in the press release, they eventually provided a link to an article by one Alyssa Lappen on FrontPage Magazine, the website of Islamophobic agitator David Horowitz.
I challenged StandWithUs repeatedly (the tweet conversation between us is reproduced below) to publish a recording of my remarks. I asked them if they had even heard such a recording. They never answered whether they had and claimed that the “reporter” must have one and said I should ask her myself.
But the quote went out in a press release bearing the name of StandWithUs. It’s obvious from their statements that they don’t have any recording, they haven’t heard one, and made no effort to verify the alleged quotes.
StandWithUs claimed to have been present at my 2005 talk but hasn’t identified who was there, nor even claimed that the person or persons representing them had heard me utter the words that appear in their press release between quotation marks.
SWU also had their story wrong about Lappen. The group claimed that Lappen had attended the conference, but in an e-mail to me, she said that she obtained the quote from a “reliable source” who was there. Lappen said that there “currently seems to be no publicly available recording of the quotation.” Lappen insisted that she writes “non-fiction” and checks “everything thoroughly,” but it’s clear that Abunimah did not say what SWU and Lappen claim he said; eyewitnesses at the conference in 2005 confirm Abunimah’s story. Furthermore, SWU didn’t bother to link to any sources when attributing the made-up quotes to Abunimah and Cobban.
SWU also appears to have made up the Cobban quote. Cobban says she never said what is in the press release, and told me:
Throughout my 17-year career as a columnist for the Christian Science Monitor, pro-Israeli discourse-suppression groups made repeated attempts to smear my name with fabricated quotes and inaccurate claims. They always failed. I see that this organization ‘Stand With Us’ is now continuing that tradition. But they are as incapable of authenticating their current claim as any of their predecessors. My record of standing for the equal rights of all human persons, be they Palestinian or Israeli, and my opposition to all forms of violence, including the very harmful systemic violence embodied in the system of military rule that Israel’s government has maintained over the occupied territories for nearly 45 years now, speaks for itself.
The controversy clearly detracted from SWU’s efforts to undermine the upcoming BDS conference. What’s more is that, as Abunimah notes, their claimed “victory”–that the BDS conference “does not have the university’s imprimatur”–doesn’t mean anything:
@StandWithUs also claiming a fake victory that UPenn isn’t “endorsing” BDS conference. Since when do universities endorse all events?
The SWU press release is part of the group’s efforts to undermine BDS efforts around the US. Embarrassing episodes like this, though, should give grassroots BDS activists hope as they continue to fight deep-pocketed Israel lobby groups.
BDS victory: Veolia loses huge waste-treatment contract in London boroughs
Dec 24, 2011
Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK
Veolia logo
The following press release went out yesterday concerning Veolia, the French company that built the tramline serving settlements in occupied East Jerusalem:
Human rights campaigners are celebrating after the West London Waste Authority (‘WLWA’) excluded French multinational Veolia from a £485 million contract covering 1.4 million inhabitants of the London boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames, for treatment of residual domestic waste.
The reasons behind the decision by the WLWA to exclude Veolia are commercially confidential but the impact of human rights campaigners should not be under-estimated.
Over the last six months campaigners lobbied Councillors and Council officials to exclude Veolia from the contract and submitted a letter to the WLWA – signed by nearly 600 local residents – documenting Veolia’s direct complicity in grave breaches of international and humanitarian law in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Campaigners pointed out that:
Veolia helped build and is involved in operating a tram-line which links Jerusalem with illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank.
Veolia takes waste from Israel and illegal Israeli Settlements and dumps this on Palestinian land at the Tovlan landfill.
The letter also gave evidence of Veolia’s racist recruitment policies in Israel, as well as the company’s operation of buses on Highway 443 which Palestinians are prohibited from using.
Veolia’s failure to win the WLWA contract is a heavy blow for the company because it owns a domestic waste depot in the area covered by the WLWA and so should have been ideally placed to meet some of the necessary criteria for the WLWA tender.
Worse still for Veolia, this blow comes only six months after it failed to win Ealing Council’s £300m new ‘Clean and Green’ contract even though Veolia already did much of the work under the old contract. When bidding for that contract Veolia had faced determined opposition from Palestinian rights campaigners over its track record in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Campaigners across the world are focussed on Veolia because it is a key target of the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (‘BDS’) campaign for Palestinian rights and which is led by Palestinian civil society organisations.
Sarah Colborne, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK , commented :
‘Complicity in infringing human rights and international law has become an expensive business for Veolia. Other companies please note: There is a strong, determined and popular international campaign for justice for Palestinians; if you aid Israel’s oppression of Palestinians your business will suffer just like Veolia’s’.
(PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from many communities across Britain)
(Hat tip Omar Barghouti)
My own Mondo Award inspiration entry: a long-distance marriage born of the Arab Spring
Dec 24, 2011
Annie Robbins
A few days ago in our call to entries for this year’s Mondo Awards I mentioned how we became acquainted with many new writers last year as a result of the Gaza Two Years Later series. When I need inspiration sometimes I check out their blogs. So, I wanted to share one of the most inspirational stories nurtured by the Arab Spring (thanks twitter!) that grew into a life story, a love story, a Palestinian story and very much a Gazan story. It is these everyday voices that are so brave, beautiful and full of love and life under the most challenging of circumstances who inspire me.
Without further adieu, by Lina Al-Sharif
Mohammed and Lina’s virtual wedding invitation
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The idea of writing about something very personal is haunting me. As a Palestinian, it’s really hard to know where to draw the line between the political and the personal. But, in Palestine, the personal is political and the political is the personal. I’ll keep the political away and dig down into the personal. This blog has been the vent for me to write some simple and humble accounts coming from a very ordinary person living under extraordinary circumstances. I can’t exclude Gaza; Palestine from anything happened-happens and will happen in my life. Simply put, being a woman from Gaza formed the person that I am today.
Proudly and luckily, I consider myself born and raised in Gaza though I was actually born in Kuwait and moved to Bolivia before coming to Gaza. I feel like I discovered my voice between the digits of these electronic pages, so it’s so much like a small note where I write a blend of the heartily minded digests of my life. I feel now that I am getting married, it’s the time to share my story, a life story, a love story, a Palestinian story.
In the past few months, I’ve been living very fast-paced events. I’d be lying if I say that I 100% fathom all of them. But all I know is that they look like everything I hushed to myself in my sleepless dreams but ironically never thought they would happen. But they did happen!
I’m a few days away from reuniting and getting married to the man that I really respect, admire, and love. Our story proves that love knows no borders, no siege, no time, and no occupation. It all started by a tweet debating whether the loud bang that was heard across Gaza was an Israeli bomb or just some thunder.
We started as friends who shared the same interests. We tweeted together as Egyptians were toppling Mubarak in Tahrir square. After a while of chatting online, Mohammed became my best friend. Long chats about Palestine, the world and the future dreams led us to feel that we can build a future together.
Mohammed is Palestinian South African working in Qatar, Allah (SWT) brought us together through– I am listing all the social media tools we used to communicate– Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, and Gtalk, then later on Skype. He left Gaza just a few days before I first knew about him. The last thing I expected in my life is to be engaged and married to A Palestinian South African! Even my parents when I first told them (yeah I am a Muslim woman who didn’t have arranged marriage, get over your stereotypes), they were like SOUTH AFRICA?! And I was like “CAN U BELIEVE THAT?!” But love knows no difference between South Africa and Palestine. Actually between South Africa and Palestine there’s the love of freedom and dignity.
April, we were officially engaged. But it was without meeting Mohammed in person. From April to September, our chats were often cut by the electricity outages, bad internet connection, and the Israeli siege on Gaza. Hearing the ghastly stories of Rafah crossing, the continuous closures and the difficulty of going out and in Gaza, made us more determined to meet. But there were times when I used to tell Mohamed: “being engaged to a Palestinian is a pain, isn’t?” “I love you more because you are a Palestinian” that answer was enough for me to stand the days, weeks and months of talking on Skype.
April, we were officially engaged. But it was without meeting Mohammed in person. From April to September, our chats were often cut by the electricity outages, bad internet connection, and the Israeli siege on Gaza. Hearing the ghastly stories of Rafah crossing, the continuous closures and the difficulty of going out and in Gaza, made us more determined to meet. But there were times when I used to tell Mohammed: “being engaged to a Palestinian is a pain, isn’t?” “I love you more because you are a Palestinian” that answer was enough for me to stand the days, weeks and months of talking on Skype.
Visit Lina’s blog Live from Gaza for the remainder of her post and then send us an entry and share something that inspired you this year. Enjoy!
Pentagon asks for extra $100 million to Israel for Iran defense (and Congress doubles the tip)
Dec 24, 2011
Allison Deger
Iron Dome. (Photo: Shaul Golan/Yedioth Ahronoth)
Congress approved an additional $235 million in U.S. military aid to Israel, Ynet reports. The U.S. allocates to Israel approximately $2.5 billion in aid, per year.
The request, which boosts the total amount allocated for 2012 to $25 million more than the last fiscal year (the 2011 budget was $3.075 billion), came from the Pentagon in order to help Israel in “development of safeguards against rockets and missiles that could be launched towards Israel by Hezbollah and Iran.”
Ynet reports:
Pentagon officials were the ones who requested that Congress approve a $106 million aid budget for Israel’s defense systems against missiles, on top of the Iron Dome budget. Congress chose to nearly double that amount, approving a budget of $235 million for 2012, amounting to $25 million more than in 2011.